IS Virus: Episode 2-9 -DIAGNOSIS-
by tonbonkittybon
Summary: A secret plan has been enacted thanks to Tatenashi's handiwork. The renegade has run smack-dab into the perfect megaphone to expose the underworld. Phantom Task is busy stirring up trouble in his stead, but when they run into a hideout they shouldn't have gone to, the renegade's test of character and resilience will begin.
1. Idiots Confront Danger

_IS Virus: Episode 2-9 -Diagnosis-_

 _Part 1: Idiots Confront Danger_

 **-QUINCY MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, GADSDEN COUNTY; 21:03, FIVE DAYS TO ELECTION-**

"I see...do you have an approximate current location?"

"No, but I have a definite current location. He's in Atlanta, currently living it up with the locals."

"Understood. Let's meet up in three days."

"Good deal. Ta-ta, Xingjia!"

Xingjia hung up and left her car. She then went to a couple on-duty officers, "He's in Atlanta. My contact has reason to believe he'll enter the Florida Panhandle tomorrow morning. He will have company."

"You seem really committed to this," an officer commented, "You sure you don't want to move here instead?"

"The green card process would take too long," Xingjia answered, "The renegade will have slipped through our fingers before my appointment."

"Fair enough," the officer led them into the parking garage, "You'll have two of our helicopters assisting you in surveillance. I trust you don't need any foot soldiers holding you back."

"I cannot hold back..." Xingjia growled, "Not after how he robbed me of my country..."

"That's what I like to hear!" The officers got in their cruiser, "We'll be at the Route 27 entry point. You'll be stationed at Jennings in case the renegade gets deeper. 04:30 hours sharp." And they drove off.

Leaving Xingjia to ponder what course of action she should take after the renegade has been brought down. "Shall I wear your skin as a cape? Or strip your dignity from your rotting carcass one tendon at a time? Nothing but your suffering will make right the wrongs of the people."

The car left the airport, giving time for the officers to ponder their current course of action.

"He's got company..."

"What are the chances of that asshat actually succeeding?"

"If that pilot doesn't hold back, pretty goddamn low."

"Then, we set her up to take the fall for property damage?"

"You bet," the officers radioed to their colleagues instructions on how to proceed with both the renegade's, and the outcast's demise.

 **-PIEDMONT PARK, FULTON COUNTY; 21:03-**

Meanwhile, Sokoto was confronting Sean, "I'm here to make a deal with you."

"What?!" Sean didn't believe him, "Why in God's holy name would I say yes to whatever is in your head?!"

At which point Sokoto unleashed his wings to intimidate the others, "One: you don't have much of a choice. And two: it could potentially benefit you."

"Right..." Sean laughed, "Like a fifty-something year old man would accept a deal from an immature teenage psychopath!"

"Oh, I'm not joking. This could benefit you..." Then Sokoto's eyes visibly turned their attention to Sean's ring finger, "...in more ways than one."

Sean covered his hands, "You wouldn't."

"Watch me," Sokoto slowly floated away...

...but stopped when Sean said, "Alright, fine!"

Sokoto touched back down, "Good. Let's talk news."

 **-21:10-**

"You're kidding..." Sean muzzled through the footage the renegade has captured of the recon missions, including the supremely vague document that speaks of a hidden provision inside the Alaska Treaty, "You're not kidding..."

"No, I ain't," Sokoto walked behind him and fondled some of the electronic stuff, "So, word is out that you're leading the fight against fake news."

"Is that the only word about me?" Sean asked.

"The only word I care about," Sokoto eyed the rest of the people here, "See, l am actually on a rescue and recon mission."

"Oh, total BS!" One of the crew yelled, "Who could possibly want you to save them?!" A giant holographic picture suddenly popped up in front of the entire lot for all to see. They saw it come from Silvia.

"Charlotte Dunois," The life size sprite spoke, "We have reason to believe she's being held in the Florida Keys. I've traced on of the captors' recent calls to just off the southern tip of Florida."

"Am I seeing things?!" Someone whispered.

"Who is she?!" Sean demanded.

"She's my sister," Sokoto said, "She's also my IS." He then walked towards Sean, "She's also also...a skeptic. Says you're a media truther."

"It's true!" Silvia yelled.

"Nut on your laisle, spork!" Sokoto snapped.

Sean chuckled, "Ok... I see what this is...you need me to unearth this gigantic conspiracy that's happening right under our noses, right?"

"Indeed."

"Oh my goodness, for something I can do from home..."

"If that's what you want, I can always recruit you wife."

"Don't you even-" Instinctively, Sean swung a light stand at the renegade, but Sokoto right over it and landed a midair roundhouse-

"UGH-" Blocked by an elbow, forearms collided with each other's, "How...did you stop my shin..."

"Brown belt..." Sean panted, "Blend of Krav Maga, jujitsu, and kenpo..." But even in his age, he could tell that Sokoto's power and reflexes alone could overpower most of his martial arts colleagues, maybe his sensei. He separated them both, long enough to catch his breath, "Alright...I'll take you over to Florida...I'll help you get everything you need..." Then, he walked over to his side, "And after that, you're on your own. Don't go north again."

"Fair enough," Sokoto held his hand out, "After I get my goods and you get your ratings, we'll go our separate ways and never cross paths again. Deal?"

"Deal."

The two shook hands, showing everyone at the park the inherent level of commitment that will be rung out of them for who knows how long. They were all on the thread thanks to that, because now they were to assist the renegade to the best of their ability, or face death.

Silvia walked up to the crewmen from behind, "Hello!" She scared them witless, but continued to speak to ease them into the situation, "I am Silvia, AKA the Silver Streamline. I will be acting as your operator until the mission is complete. I will provide whatever logistical support I can draw out from any nearby resource. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."

"Uh..." no one knew how to respond, but they knew that they had to do something. They all called their contacts and told them that they had another assignment that required the weekend.

Because as soon as everyone knew what they were in for, Silvia announced that they would leave right away. The fight was on. After a brief meeting, Sokoto and Silvia laid out the game plan, which was little more than prepare to defend yourself and wing it just get to the keys. Everyone packed into the van and drove off to Florida. They all took turns navigating through Georgia, taking care not to wander into any routes suspected of police activity. And it wasn't long before they encountered their first obstacle.

 **-FLORIDA WELCOME SIGN, GADSDEN COUNTY; 04:24, FOUR DAYS TO ELECTION-**

"This is crazy," Sean muttered to himself, "How are we supposed to pull this off without anyone getting suspicious?"

"Just follow our lead, and we'll get through this," Sokoto spoke from behind the driver's seat.

"Your lead's blowing shit up and leaving behind a trail of evidence."

"Ok, allow me to offer a compromise," Silvia stepped in to speak, then fizzled to Sokoto's collar and yanked him to the floor, "I'll lead the way, you be quiet, and Hannity's the safety guy! Are we square?!"

"Uh, sure..." they both whispered.

"And another thing, onii! You threatened to kill his wife! WHAT IN EVERY SENSE OF THE WORD WHY?!"

"What? I..." he stammered, "I just needed to-"

"This is exactly what I meant when I said give a moment to someone who screwed up so badly! But he NEVER SCREWED SHIT!"

"You called him a media truther!"

"But I never called him or his family meat!"

"Uh, excuse me?" One of the crew member-

"WHAT?!"

"Um..." the cameraman pointed to a tollway with two on duty officers.

"Uh, yeah, guys, stuff him in that screwed shit..." Sean gripped the wheel tightly while everyone else worked to hide the renegade as best they could.

Near the tollway, the officers saw the vehicle coming, and quickly radioed, "Hey, we got a van coming in at a very early hour."

"What is it?" the voice answered back.

"It's a utility van, looks like..." an officer on duty noted, "A Fox News van...with a very prominent face at the wheel."

"Does that ever happen?" Xingjia muttered before commanding, "Stop them for inspection."

The officers stood in front of the tollway and held out their hands. Sean saw the signal and slowed down.

"Oh boy," he muttered, "Stick to the plan...stick to the plan..." The van crawled to a halt as the officers came round the windows. One of then shone a flashlight right at his face.

"Mind telling me why you've driven your sorry rear end all the way out here?" she demanded.

"Got a copy of a letter saying I need to be here," Sean gave her the letter.

To which the officer closely inspected, then crumpled and stomped the letter flat, "What letter?"

"That's just a copy..."

The other officer banged on the rear doors, "Everybody out!"

The crew were forced out of the van. The officer inspected every corner she could go into, even the space for the spare tire. She really didn't want to go inside to spread out all the lighting junk, due to the undeniable fingerprints on them, but something told her that she has to. Silvia was able to peek under the shades and decided to make a little outbound call. She cloaked her signal and went straight to Sean's cellphone.

"The hell?..." Sean answered-

"Where the hell are you?!" A female voice boomed, "You were supposed to be here by now!"

"Wha-" Sean stammered before he recognized that voice, "Well, sorry, but I'm being held up by the tollway police!"

"Hey!" The officer snapped, "Off your phone now!"

"Who is that?" the caller asked.

"The police..." Sean muttered.

"Let me talk to them!" the caller demanded. Sean gave the phone to the officer.

"Hello, who is this?" the officer asked.

An out came a female voice, "I'm the woman who wants to know why you're keeping one of my lapdogs in a cage!"

"We're just performing a routine inspection," the officer assured, "We're almost finished with-"

"Routine?! Give me a break! You only did that since the coming of the Gen5 models!"

"Ma'am, we're going to have to bring you in for-"

"For, what? Being a man?! I have documentation of you arresting people crossing state borders for no reason other than false accusations, all made by women in uniform! I have documentation of you confiscating cameras and mics even though I SENT THOSE GUYS OUT THERE TO COVER THE PROTESTS! You wanna arrest him? Go ahead. But know this. If he is arrested, I will take legal action against you. Not the police department. You. And any of your border patrol friends you got with you."

The officer was stunned. She could not believe that a woman was going to vouch for someone like him. She didn't have a choice now, and the van was combed through very thoroughly. She certainly did not want to have a giant media conglomerate on her trail, much less this giant media conglomerate, especially when the person who sent him was...oh boy.

She gave Sean back the phone. "You can go in now," she growled. All the crew members went inside the van. Sean went back in the driver's seat and sighed. As soon as the van drove off, the officer radioed back to Xingjia.

"What happened?"

"We were forced to let him go," the officer said, "but there's something hidden in that pile of junk right behind the driver's seat. They're coming off routes 27 and 111."

"I suspect they're not the only ones. I've gotten no word of Chifuyu or the Schwarzer Hase at any airport."

"Understood," the officer hung up.

"What'd she say?" her partner asked.

"We may have unwanted company..."

Back in the van, everyone breathed a sigh of relief. Especially Sokoto, who had to struggle his way out of the junk and the feet, "Whew...I didn't think that would go..."

"Me neither..." Sean said, "You have your IS friend to thank for that."

"Huh?" Sokoto swerved back to Silvia, "How'd you get his number?"

"Tee-hee!" Silvia chirped.

"Ok," one of the crew members said, "We got in. Now what?"

"Yeah, what are we supposed to do inside a giant white van with the world's biggest bluest logo?" Sean griped.

"Well..." Sokoto thought, "We could always have on the fly interviews and make an entire show outta that..."

"Uh, I'm not exactly known for that," Sean said, "That's someone else's specialty..."

"But what about a special episode?" a crew member mused, and everyone gave that a long thought.

"Maybe..." Sean said until he looked at the dashboard, "Dammit, we need gas."

"Uh-oh..." someone said.

"Anywhere that's nigh-abandoned?" Sokoto asked, closing his eyes to sense any places with only a few people.

"Huh..." Sean kept an eye out until he saw a gas station with only one car, "I think that's a good spot..." He pulled the van by a gas pump and inspected the store, "Ok, there's a man and a woman inside. Everybody get a bathroom break in, because once we leave we're not stopping for anything."

"Whew, looks like a sausage party's about to go down!" Silvia elicited a groan from everyone in the van.

"Please stay here, Sil..."

Sokoto walked out and stretched his legs. He then looked around for a bit, and quickly recognized this station as one of the worst spots to stop at. During his last visit a couple years ago, there was a massive show of force to penalize university football teams due to inherent gender discrimination. This gas station had a massive demonstration to ward off anyone want to visit Florida. Sokoto tried to step in and reason with them that the real fight was inside the schools, not here near the border. They shot back that he doesn't understand, and he asked them to help him understand. They responded by beating the ever loving crap out of him, without seeing the very few cellphones that recorded the whole beatdown. Since then, gender relations have deteriorated, thanks to a bunch of older women assaulting a little boy, and justifying it. No one has ever made mention of that incident.

"You're staring into oblivion, kid," Sean noted, "Anything you wanna tell me about this place?"

"Yeah..." Sokoto scratched his head, "I was involved in one of the protests here..."

"How?"

"I got every bone broke."

"No, way...you?! You're the person who was sent to the hospital?!"

"Yeah..."

"Huh..." Sean didn't believe him, "Well, let's see if anybody recognizes you. Go in there and ask for a full tank."

Until now, when Sokoto put on his disguise and walked into the store. He went up to the register, "$50 for number 3."

That was all he needed to say for one woman to recognize that voice. "What the hell are you doing here..."

"Just visiting a friend in Daytona..."

"Don't lie to me!" the woman threw a can of beer at him, which was caught, "Because of you, almost all of my friends got arrested!"

"Because of the massive beatdown a bunch of women gave a little boy..."

"A little boy?! You ain't got no right to understand this!"

"Is that what you told the police?" he asked, "Nothing's going to happen if you just keep everything to yourself."

"Except for the fact that there is now a resolution on the table to reconsider Title IX for sports scholarships, you dumb cunt," she said.

"Well, what did you expect?"

"For you to stay out of my way!"

Suddenly, Sean walked in and tapped Sokoto's shoulder, "What's taking so long? I'm already itching to-"

"No..." the woman recognized him from his TV show. Not his original show, he appeared on another network to break the story on incoming gender issues, before the Gen2 models came out. She switched parties because of him. And yet, here she was, witnessing a conversation between her most hated and one of her most well-liked, "It can't be..."

"Uh, do I know you?" Sean asked.

"No...you can't be with this...this...you're not taking him anywhere, are you?!"

"Taking him to Daytona," Sean quickly came up with an excuse, "He's a friend of my brother who's about to be checked out of the hospital today."

"No...no, you're not..." the woman muttered, "You...are leaving him to the hounds...and you're gonna walk away from him...no matter what!"

Sean groaned and stepped in front of the renegade, then crossed his arms, "Is that betrayal I sense in you?"

"No! Do you even know what he's done?!"

"And what price he's had to pay, nearly every bone longer than 5 inches broken. Yes, I know. I'm well aware."

"Then...then, why?!"

"You did hear me talk about how equality isn't exactly equal, right?"

She did remember. His monologues about a two-tiered justice system, the occasional gender inequality conversations...he knew what happened here. And based on what he heard a few seconds ago...

"And let me guess," Sean threw out a bluff, "You're going back to the Democrats right? Now that you know I'm associated with him, you're no longer a conservative, right?"

"Uh...uh..." Caught in an inescapable trap. There was nothing she could say that he can't counter, especially when he's known politics for way longer than she's been around.

"*SIGH* I was only joking; I didn't know that's actually gonna happen..." And he's officially had it, "Come on, little man. Let's get outta here before she starts haggling."

"Uh...ok..." Sokoto left, "Everyone, time to go!"

The rest of the crew followed him out and left. The woman just stood alone behind the register, deepening her anger at the fact (?) that she had been betrayed. She dialed a special number on her cellphone, "You were right. Men are a joke. I saw Hannity with that filthy little slime-ball. The just left the station."

"Understood," Xingjia said, "I wil intercept him before noon. Thank you for your contribution."

"Any time," the woman hung up, then slammed her phone on the table, "You'll pay for turning him over...I'll see to it." Then, she used her free time to tap into every social media account she had to warn Florida about the coming of the traitor.

Back in the van, everyone was reeling from that last interaction.

"How many of us think we'll get caught?" A crew member said.

"I think so," Silvia said, "which means we'll need to take an alternate route. Preferably one that isn't littered with police hiding spots."

"That's every road ever!" Sokoto said, "We gotta figure out where the police would be coming from, first!"

"How the hell did that woman recognize you, anyway?!" Sean asked, "I thought you had contacts on!"

"Can we not talk about this since we're all about to die?" Sokoto shouted.

"Hey, easy! We're gonna get through this!" Silvia calmed everyone down, "Let me pull up my radar and guide us outta here." She went back into the bracelet and pulled up a map of current police cars active. "Right!" The van made a brisk turn out of the highway and into a rural neighborhood. "Left!" A hard turn, and it just kept going. Silvia gave out directions to steer the van away from trouble, inching them ever closer to the entry point. Thankfully, the van didn't get caught and wander into areas being watched over by the authorities.

Unthankfully, it costed them a lot of stamina. They somehow wound up in a park.

 **-OLD BAINBRIDGE COUNTY PARK, LEON COUNTY; 09:36-**

"Ugh...my head..." Sokoto crawled under the van.

"Is he always like this?" A cameraman asked.

"I guess so..." Sean muttered before kicking Sokoto's posterior, which elicited a response via another. This time, Sean was able to block it completely, "Would you stop doing that?!" He pushed his leg away and threw Sokoto against a trash can, "What are we even doing here?! Don't you have to go down to the Keys or whatever you have to do?!"

"I know, I know!" Sokoto said, "But just let me give my legs a chance to flex! They've been stiff since this morning..."

"Am I crazy? I gotta be going crazy. I can't take this..." Sean walked away in disbelief, ignoring all the weird looks he was attracting and going over to a water fountain to douse himself, trying to clear his head of all the double-slaps the renegade's personality changes have given him.

"You ok?"

"WHOA-GEEZ!" Sean was startled by Silvia's sudden appearance, "Oh, god, you..."

"Just wanted to check in, since you seem so...uncertain, I guess?"

"Yeah, you're right about that," Sean walked over and sat down on a bench, "Getting caught up with the renegade is one thing, but...when the renegade's an all-powerful pipsqueak..."

"Well, that's the thing..." Silvia said, "He's never had any real parents to show him how to act. Everything he does, he's learned from traveling the world."

"Ok...I've heard some richness before, but that is the wildest tale I've ever heard..."

"Well, how would it explain...that?" Silvia pointed to Sokoto slithering his way through a playground, slides and sides.

"Oh, good lord..."

"Yep, he is currently the world's most powerful happy-go-lucky dolt."

Sean just stared at the renegade for 30 seconds before sighing, "Yep, I've definitely lost it..." He casually walked over to the renegade, who was attracting a lot of negative attention for his little stunt. As soon as he got within reach however, he caught a stick that was about to thrash his neck, "Ok, will you stop it for one second?!" He pulled the renegade off.

"Whaaaaaat?! I was just enjoying myself!"

"Do you have any idea how much attention you're getting?!"

"Well, these women were trying to kick me out, so I just wiggled their-"

"That's not the goddamn point! Aren't you worried about police getting on your tail?!"

"Not really. I can always just fly past them."

"And the snipers and military people?" Sean turned to the presence of Army Reserve troops near the park entrance, "You know they're out for your blood, don't you? And they have friends with them?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Ok, here's what I'm trying to say," He knelt down with Sokoto, "You have an IS. We don't. I know you'll go after my family if I don't cooperate with you, but what happens if I die on your watch, huh? What then?"

Sokoto never had to think about that until now, "Well...huh...I've only been around other pilots and combat-capable people..."

"Kind of a different experience when you're literally the only one powerful enough to defend your lackeys, huh?"

"Did not plan for this...no, sirree..." Sokoto walked over to the van and sat.

Sean just threw his hands up in disbelief, "I do believe I am destined to die..."

While Silvia was going through everyone's gear, "Ok, I think we can work this into a large scale transmitter device..."

"Wouldn't that require us to stay behind in the mainland?" Someone said.

"No...we can get as far as the Boot Key if we just want the signal to go through. For the best connection between the mainland and onii-chan, we'll have to settle at the Lower Matecumbe Key."

"That's far and deep!" A writer said, "How are we supposed to drive all the way there in two and a half days?! Without getting caught, no less!"

"We'll just have to press our luck. Shake off any pursuers and nab a signal amp and some antennae..."

"You're joking, right...It took a month to get that van ready. How do we get it in two days?"

"Leave that to me. I'll test connections of whatever we nab..."

"What?" A cameraman said, "What's the matter?"

"Red blue purple..." Silvia muttered, right before shouting, "EVERYONE IN THE VAN!"

"What?" Sean turned his head towards a sudden soft siren sound, "Uh-oh..."

Sokoto felt an aural rash on his entire backside, and he immediately deployed.

"Uh...ok..." Sean muttered, "What are you doing..."

"In the van now!" Sokoto stepped forward, "I'm gonna get the cops away from you!"

"How are you planning on doing that?!" Sean ran back to the van and revved it up, "In case you haven't noticed, there's more than police out there!"

"I know! Just whatever way I blast, you guys go the other way!" Sokoto flew out to the entrance and blasted a huge laser southward.

"What the-is he crazy?!" Sean screamed as he and the crew scrambled to get out of the park.

"Not really!" Silvia said as she guided the van out, "He did the same thing with Phantom Task! All the attention's on him, as well as a huge chunk of authorities!"

"Well, what do we do?!" a crewmember demanded.

"Head left!" Sivlia screamed.

The van swerved through the narrow entry way, right behind Sokoto's intensified laser. Sokoto made sure to blast off every single thing that could hit the van until it was clear for it to leave the city, then turned to face the horde. He sighed as he saw the pilots that would inevitably become the butt of all his jokes, "You guys must really seem to like me."

"Shut your damn mouth!" one of those women screamed, "You will not squander over those poor women any longer!"

"What earrings did you plug up your ears to not hear about the compound raids?..."

"We didn't," another voice crawled through the air.

"Oh, I called it..." Sokoto got excited once he was able to confirm that floating aura above him.

"Long time no see, renegade," Xingjia growled.

"Not long enough," Sokoto got into his fighting stance and immediately triggered the Emergency Override.

"Oh, no. No no no no, you are not doing that here!" Xingjia demanded while everyone else prepped their weapons for battle.

"Why not? You're obviously not going after Hannity," EMERGENCY OVERRIDE. CONVERTING EXCESS EXCITEMENT INTO WING ENERGY, "Either you have little helpers, or you're really...really dumb," MAX FOUR MINUTES FIFTY-FIVE SECONDS.


	2. Quiet Homing Signal

_Part 2: Quiet Homing Signal_

 _(Guitar)_

 _(...aaaahaaahaa x8)_

Sean was so focused on finding a way out of the chaos that he barely paid any attention to the music blaring out of Silvia's ears. He took one glance into the rear-view mirror, "Uh, why's music coming out of your megaphone ears?"

"It's onii-chan!" Silvia said, "He's triggered the Emergency Override"!

"What?"

"It means things are about to get way too explodey!" Silvia hopped in the passenger seat, "I'll guide you out of here! Just focus on not getting hit!"

"Right," Sean was out of shits to give at that point, "Everyone grab hold of something! We're about to break some laws!"

 _(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)_

Believeing that he was now in the same vane as the renegade, Sean cleared the street and made it onto the highway.

 _(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)_

He could see the destruction the renegade was blanketing on over the park, as well as the few cop cars that were chasing after him under orders from Xingjia.

 _(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)_

Sean increased the speed and kept his eye out for any potential exits, while blowing past the traffic and the pursuit.

 _(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)_

Silvia pulled up a map and began to lead the van out of the area.

 _(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)_

Meanwhile, the battle was already underway over the park, with Sokoto already delivering a double kick to Xingjia, and rushing his way over to the other pilots.

 _(Thunder! ...aaaahaaahaa)_

They all got together and formed a barrier to protect themselves, but Sokoto's hook got through right before the barrier closed.

 _(THUNDER!)_

Sokoto reeled himself in and immediately charged a, "GRENADE!"

 _(THUNDER!)_

And shattered the barrier on impact. He immediately rocketed towards a pilot, flinging the hook at her and making sure he didn't fall for that trap again.

 _(THUNDER!)_

The three pilots scattered, and Xingjia lept up to meet Sokoto's fist.

 _(THUNDER!)_

The two engaged in a very brief CQC exchange before he had to back away from the pilots' projectile attacks.

 _(I was caught in the middle of a railroad track [THUNDER])_

Sean continued to drive his way out of the city, when Silvia suddenly fizzled the wheel a hard right, sending the van into a skid across the sidewalk, and a very long drift across the entire road.

 _(I looked round and I knew there was no turning back [THUNDER])_

Sean and Silvia struggled to keep the van under control, while the rest of the crew were peeping out the windows for a possible way out.

 _(My mind raced and I thought what could I do [THUNDER])_

Sean immediately saw an incoming intersection and forced the van left, narrowly missing several cars.

 _(And I knew there was no help, no help from you [THUNDER])_

Silvia immediately swerved the car across the road, dodging every single car without touching them and causing headaches for those in pursuit.

 _(Sound of the drums)_

Meawhile, Sokoto practically ruined the park, blasting everything in sight and forcing the fight onto the lake.

 _(Beating in my heart)_

The three women tried to trap him in, but he seemed to know what was hiding behind their thighs.

 _(The thunder of guns)_

He caught the mysterious chains and allowed them to hold him up.

 _(Tore me apart)_

He dropped down, retracted his IS, barrel-rolled his way past the chains, and smacked his shield on the leader's face.

 _(You've been...Thunderstruck)_

The leader tried to retaliate by swinging her chains at him, but he very quickly redeployed his arms and legs, and fired a low-powered Radiant Gallic Grapple, giving him enough time to avoid the chain attack and land two brutal kicks on her neck and her chin, all the while latching his hook onto another one of the trio, and flinging himself straight into the Shadow Spell.

 _(Rode down the highway, broke the limit, we hit the town)_

Sean and Silvia led the police past a bridge and into another neighborhood. When they came across an intersection, Silvia slammed the wheel to the left.

 _(Went through to Texas, yeah Texas, and we had some fun)_

Right into the opposite flow of traffic, which made it all the more harder for them to concentrate. They kept dodging until the went into a curve.

 _(We met some girls, some dancers who gave a good time)_

When the came out, they found a police cruiser ready to intercept them. Silvia floored it and charged straight ahead.

 _(Broke all the rules! Played all the fools! Yeah yeah they, they, they blew our minds!)_

The rest of the crew braced themselves for impact, while Sean looked above and saw an opening. He steered the van a little to the right, causing the van to knock into the cruiser with minimal knockback to them, and causing Silvia to try and right the van, sending it into another drift.

 _(And I was shaking at the knees)_

The van drifted into the main highway, blowing past every car in the way.

 _(Could I come again please?)_

With that one drift, any car that was hit was forced into a makeshift roadblock.

 _(Yeah them ladies were too kind)_

Most of the police were trapped, but a couple cars found an alternate route to cut the van off.

 _(You've been...Thunderstruck)_

Silvia noticed two cruisers coming and suddenly hit the brakes, narrowly avoiding being rammed by the police and creating an opening for the van to speed past them.

 _(Thunderstruck)_

The police radioed for backup and kept the pursuit going.

 _(Yeah yeah yeah, thunderstruck)_

Meanwhile, Sokoto has figured out how to counter the Shadow Spell that kept him from landing crushing hits. He just had to charge power and slam the chains themselves with energy grenades to temporarily cancel out their power sucking abilities.

 _(Ooo, thunderstruck)_

And the rest flowed naturally. He could maneuver those chains to ram into someone, and they'd either take a huge accidental hit, or by the time the chains regained their functions, have their power sucked instead.

 _(Yeah...)_

It drove the three women uncontrollably crazy how much he learned about their attacks in that short amount of time. Especially the leader, since the Shadow Spell did not affect the IS's ability to withdraw. They all resumed their triangle formation and launched their rockets and bullets.

 _(I was shaking at the knees)_

Sokoto resumed dodging those projectiles, keeping an ear open for any sign from Xingjia.

 _(Could I come again please)_

And he felt it. He felt a huge surge of hatred and disgust...with an ever so small hint of curiosity. He instinctively IB'd upward to get away from the charge attack.

But it wasn't a charge. It was a gigantic energy ball that blew up the lake. Sokoto was shocked that it wasn't actually Xingjia, so he twirled around thinking that she'd follow it up with a surprise strike. Instead, he was met with an energy blast that flung him across the city and into another park. The pilots pursued him across the water, while Xingjia managed to hide herself in a nearby neighborhood and kept blasting him out of the sky until he was brought to the ground.

 _(...aaaahaaahaa)_

When Sokoto touched the ground, he swung on a branch, retracted his IS and hid himself in the leaves.

 _(...aaaahaaahaa)_

The three women touched down and scoured the park in search of the renegade.

 _(...aaaahaaahaa)_

Sokoto used their tall metallic distractions to their advantage to sneak his way out.

 _(...aaaahaaahaa)_

He slowly weaved his way past the trees and the woods, in the direction of what he thought was Xingjia's aura. Once he made it onto an open road, he immediately deployed and fired off a Radiant Gallic Grapple at the bridge. The other women caught onto his act, but he reeled himself away from the park and cancelled the Gallic Grapple right before he was set to collide with the bridge, giving him enough speed to flee the fight.

 _(Thunderstruck, Thunderstruck, Thunderstruck, Thunderstruck, yeah, yeah, yeah, said)_

But not enough to outrun Xingjia, who smacked him right in the jaw. He reeled back and forth, unwittingly launching his hook at her. She caught it and fired her cannon, but he dodged the shot and tried to kick her. She blocked that hit, and stayed within CQC range to try to overpower him, given his short stature and subpar attack power output. But in her power-hungry rampage, he used his size to his advantage and blow past the majority of her attacks.

 _(Yeah, It's alright, we're doin' fine)_

Sokoto suddenly landed an uppercut on Xingjia's neck. The surprise hit, and the fact that he got in so close to strike, that Xingjia completely lost her composure. She activated her One-Off Ability, flinging energy bullets in a circular wave throughout the county.

 _(Yeah, It's alright, we're doin' fine, fine, fine)_

Several bullets were headed to the van, which Sokoto was barely able to defend thanks to his E.O. increasing his speed. But most of the police in pursuit were hit and immobilized by the bullets.

 _(Thunderstruck, yeah, yeah, yeah)_

Sokoto saw the three pilots gunning towards the van and immediately IB'd into them.

 _(Thunderstruck, Thunderstruck)_

They had their Shadow Spell chains at full power ready to strike, but since he rushed into them, the chains trapped all four of them.

 _(Thunderstruck, baby, baby)_

They rolled down the street like a giant steel barrel plowing through the miniscule cars.

 _(Thunderstruck, you've been Thunderstruck! ...aaaahaaahaa)_

Any police in pursuit of the van immediately stopped and u-turned back to the renegade being pinned down. Xingjia also stopped firing to dive down into the mayhem.

 _(Thunderstruck! ...aaaahaaahaa)_

She charged one more blast and fired, stopping the tumbling pilots from causing anymore damage and cancelling the Shadow Spell.

 _(Thunderstruck! You've been Thunderstruck!)_

While Sean and Silvia were able to make a clean getaway. They turned into a road that would lead them out of the city. The crew was unconscious from what they had to experience. The remaining two were shaking their heads, still wondering what drove them to cause such a ruckus alongside the renegade.

Who was trapped in the chain wrap along with the three pilots.

"Ow...my childhood..." Sokoto muttered...

"Shut your mouth!" the leader shouted, "And get me out of here!"

"Hey, watch were your heeling!"

"Get your stupid ass hair outta my face!"

"SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU!" Xingjia boomed. She arrived when the police came in to observe the scene, "I ought to have all of you detained right now!"

"Actually, we'll need to bring you in as well," one of the policewomen said.

"What? Why?!" Xingjia demanded.

"One, for entering illegally. Two, property damage. Three, aggravated assault. Need I go on?"

"I am here on request of the State Department!"

"We'll look into that," one of the police officers apprehended her, "after we lock you up."

"Bring the rest over here, too!" the police started to untangle the chain wrap. And tasers.

"Oh no..." Silvia sensed the IS's paralyzation and performed...hand signs.

"Ok, we lost them!" Sean shouted, "Where to next?!" No answer. "Hey! Where do I-what are you doing?"

"He's in trouble!" Silvia said, "Override Zero-Zero-Zero-Soul Release! Code, Time On!"

EMERGENCY OVERLOAD INITIATED. ONE MINUTE TO MELTDOWN.

"What in the gibb-HOLY..." Sean muttered before seeing a yellow pillar of light burst from the renegade's location far away, "Just keep swimming." He just kept going, turning onto a road leading south.

"What the hell is happening?!" a woman shouted.

"I don't know!" A police officer shouted, "It's gotta be his core blood!"

But they didn't have time to process that, because they were overwhelmed by a multitude of simultaneous occurrences. The giant glow, the steady rumbling of the air, the sudden dramatic music blaring throughout the street.

 _ **(FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY!)**_

Sokoto, however, started to lose control of himself. Under the glow of the light, his consciousness caved into a sudden impulse to destroy everything. His IS started sucking in energy from the other pilots, giving him enough power to rattle the chains.

 _ **(FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY! FIGHTING DIRTY!)**_

He started to charge a Radiant Gallic Grapple from within the wrap, causing the other pilots to be affected and lose most of their shield energy. Xingjia saw what he was doing and tried to put a stop to it. She deployed her IS and tried to lance her way through.

 _ **(You can't stop him! Aaaaaaaaaa!)**_

But she was too late. The chains burst, and the renegade stepped forward, with a blisteringly golden energy cloak, and his One-Off Ability now active.

 _ **(You can't stop this motherfucker!)**_

The other pilots tried to launch an attack from the rear, while Xingjia tried again to lance him.

 _ **(HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS!)**_

With one swift roundhouse kick, he downed all four of them. He walked forward and blasted the daylights out of the three pilots. Nearly all of the police tried to shoot him down, to no effect. He saw one of the officers try to ring a Canceller around his neck. He triggered an Ignition Boost on his left foot that shot out a burst of air, pushing the officer back and impaling her on a signpost.

 _ **(HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS! HOLY! SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY!)**_

Xingjia tried again to take him down. She blasted out from her cannons, but he was able to dodge all of them, making the cannons hit the city instead. He got in close to her back, but she swung her lance at him, preventing him from landing a huge hit, but still knocking her back against a building.

 _ **(SHIT BALLS! OH, HOLY, SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY! SHIT BALLS!)**_

She tried to free herself, but Sokoto hammered her deep with his feet and IB'd the consciousness out of her. He lept off and flew up, while blasting the rest of the block.

 _ **(OH, HOLY, SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY! SHIT BALLS!)**_

The police who tried to intervene were injured, and those who didn't had no choice but to try and escape, despite Sokoto blasting most of the vehicles.

 _ **(OH, HOLY, SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY! SHIT BALLS!)**_

Once Sokoto was 200 feet up, he launched his last Radiant Gallic Gun at a building far from his location.

 _ **(OH, HOLY, SHIT BALLS, OH, HOLY SHIT!)**_

When it touched the surface, it immediately pulled him in. When he punched the building, it caused a massive explosion that rocked the city and obliterated everything in a 300 ft radius.

Sokoto himself was flung out of the pile of smoke at a rapid speed, without his IS. He splashed down in a lake. Five seconds after he was submerged, he re-emerged gasping for air, "PLI-KLA...HOLY MOTHER OF...*COUGH*COUGH*...ugh...what in the holy..." He drudged himself out of the water and stuffed himself in the nearby bushes, throwing his clothes out of sight before anyone can see him. He then spread himself out, "HOOOOOOH boy...what was that?...Felt like if Iron Man lost it and made a Broly suit and stuffed me inside it..." Then, he heard people screaming. He peeked through the leaves and saw his unconscious handiwork.

An entire block eradicated. Nothing but smoke, rubble, and blood.

"Whoa...did I do that?..." He muttered before hearing his bracelet beep. He quickly pressed one of the blinking charms to stop it, but it opened up a communication link to Silvia.

"Sil? Hey, Silvia? Can you hear me?" No response. "Silvia, what's happened?!" Still nothing. "Sil, everything's blacked out! I can't deploy or text or anything! I think I just caused like a half billion dollars in property damage without remembering a single thing about it!" Still nothing.

And that's when a very harsh realization set in. Once again, he was all alone, cut off from all possible contact. No one to turn to. Not even his "hostages" that could've ran off to Destination Fucked. Just the massive numbers of people running away from the explosion site, and the very few people running towards it to try and clean up the mess. No one saw him.

"Ok...don't panic...what do I have on me..." He examined himself and found only his shield bracelet, "Huh...ok. We can work with this...I'll just be...that guy who took too much acid...yeah..." He closed his eyes and concentrated, trying to find a way out of the city without being detected. But he felt a very familiar aura. It was...devilishly pink.

"Oh, holy rabbit shit balls! " he growled as he dashed off towards the main highway.

Sean, on the other hand, was facing a different dilemma. Silvia guided him and his crew to safety, but she's disappeared. Fizzled out of existence. She left behind her clothes, but no directions.

"Hey," a cameraman said, "she's gone now, right?"

"I'm trying to focus on the road," Sean muttered.

"Why?" A writer asked, "With her gone, he can't keep tabs on us anymore! He won't know a goddamn thing!"

"But the rest of the public knows!" Someone shouted, "Who's to say they won't lump us in with the renegade?!"

"They can't. They don't have concrete evidence."

"They don't need evidence to smear our names anymore! Reputation goes a long way both ways!"

"What the hell is that supposed to mean?!" Sean demanded.

"It means we are wanted, just like the renegade!"

"Yeah, I figured out that much. Anything else?"

"It also means we can't go back," a crew member said, which shocked everyone else except Sean, who was too busy weighing his options to be at all fazed about that revelation. He's driving a van that was now considered an object of interest. He has no way of knowing whether or not the renegade has made it out alive. Probably did thanks to Silvia's magic incantation, but why would she do that for him? Does she owe him?

And what was up with that last blockage? He could've easily just let the bullets through and that would be the end of it, yet he chose to block them, thereby ensuring his, and the crew's, survival.

Sean was thinking about how to move forward with that wild revelation, while listening in to his teammates' argument for an answer.

"We cannot go on. Not like this."

"Oh, and let the renegade into our families? No chance!"

"What can he do without that thing?!"

"We shouldn't get involved like that! Who do you think will come for us now that he's gone?!"

"No way, if we're staying, I'm outing."

"And go where, exactly?"

"Anywhere that doesn't involve him!"

Until he stepped in, "Not an option."

The crew was stunned. Someone spoke, "What do you mean, not an option?!"

"The renegade's face is seen everywhere now," Sean reasoned, "There's just no escaping him wherever we go."

"That doesn't mean we have to involve ourselves with him!" The cameraman said, "He involved himself with us!"

"And due to that fact!" Sean snapped, "We are now trapped inside a giant white van heading the opposite direction of our now-missed flight back home! And don't forget, those policewomen clearly did not want us here!"

"He's right..." someone whispered, "We're clearly wanted."

"In other words, we're criminals?!" The writer asked.

"And they sure as hell won't believe us if we say "the renegade captured us"," Sean said, "So I don't know if we should wait for them to jail us, or screw it and just go to whatever key he wants us to go to."

"Oh, no. No, no no no no..."

"You're not saying..." the crew assumed the worst.

"Yeah, I am saying," Sean said, "because I have a daughter, and she took the IS compatibility test out of curiosity. She never studied, never prepared for it... and she got a B rating."

That silenced the van. They never heard him say anything that vital about his family. Ever, not even to his most trusted friends. And they could tell that the renegade has gotten to him.

"But, no one knows, right?" The writer pressed, "The police can still protect her without knowing that, right?"

"One: it's in the government records," Sean explained, "Two: thank God that the IS Academy is optional in America, but what if that were to change? What if that's the first thing the next president decides to do? Three: protection is never guaranteed. MS-13 has always been on the delivery end of the trafficking crap. And thanks to...that Pennsylvania bust, we now know that they've delved into that arena, too. So, if it happened over there, who's to say it can't happen on Long Island, or LA, or even Austin?"

"Oh..." a crewman muttered, "...we don't have a choice, do we?..."

"No, we don't," Sean reasoned, "and like it or not, I just witnessed two instances where the most wanted criminals on earth saved our hides. We're literally running on borrowed time. We owe them."

The crew members thought long and hard about Sean's monologue, placing themselves in his shoes. Finally, they came to the realization that they just wanted to get out of this alive, but to do that, sometimes they have to break their own rules. This was one of those times.

The writer chuckled, "You haven't finished processing everything that just happened, have you?"

"Neither have you," Sean smiled.

"Fine, I'll bite," the writer responded, "but after this, I'm quitting."

"Me too," the cameraman said, "this is not what I signed up for."

"Well, then...apparently since this is the last job we've got," a crewman said, "can we make this one a memorable one?"

"God, please, no..." the writer sighed.

"Oh, man what are we doing?!"

"I'm not sure," Sean sighed as he drove the van out of the region, readjusting his mindset to fit the unreasonable circumstances he's trapped in. He figured, if he was going down, it would make no sense to go down quietly. If what the renegade's been saying about this whole Provision mess was true, and it very much looked like it, the country would go down with him.

One last call was in order. Sean took his cellphone out to call his wife: "Honey, are you there?"

"Oh my god, Sean! Are you hurt?! Did the renegade do anything to you?!"

"No, just some threats, but that's all. Listen, he...he wants me to go to the Florida Keys."

"What? Why there?!"

"Says he wants me to break some giant story, otherwise he'll come after you."

"Oh lord..."

"Yeah, scary, I know. Listen to me. Take everyone out of Long Island. Hide away someplace, just not anywhere near home."

"But what about you?"

"As long as I do what he says, I'll be fine. He knows who I am. He won't kill me so recklessly."

"Ok...I'll keep in touch."

"Thanks, and I love you."

"I love you too..."

Sean hung up and resteadied his gaze, "Ok, guys. Write me up some script notes. We're gonna spill a scoop so big the renegade will instantly forget about us."

"But how are we gonna fill the gaps?!" The cameraman asked, "You always have people talking with you on the show!"

Sean took a peek at his side mirror and noticed some trees rustling slightly unnaturally, "Oh, I think we have that covered..."

He saw their leaves open up when one of his friends tried to jump out. This time, it was a woman in black.

Somehow, Chifuyu had weaved her way down to their area without getting caught by the renegade. She had a hunch that Sokoto would try to get his message out the biggest way possible, so she tailed them from afar to try and decode the renegade's exact message. Quite the interesting conversations she had heard around town, too, as they made her suspect that something bad was coming. Especially the fact that the van kept its course even though the renegade had left.

"Clarissa," she radioed, "I'm pursuing the van. It's people have decided to stay true to the renegade's mission. Track Phantom Task and their exploits as well, and bring them down whenever you see an opening."

Meanwhile, Tabane took herself off the hunt momentarily to survey the damage her latest tech upgrades have done to the city.

"Wow!" She marveled while rubbing some dust off her fingers, "Quite the damage output!"

"Get everyone inside!" A policewoman shouted, "Contact the governor! This is now a state of emergency!"

"Oh, great..." Tabane groaned, then walked up to a firefighter, "State of emergency, eh? Curfew, I assume?"

"Yes! The renegade is on the loose, destroying towns just like he did here!" The firefighter yelled, "Now, get outta the way!"

"Huh..." Tabane stretched her arms, "Did I ever reveal myself to this corner of the world?" Maybe that's why no one's jumping the gun to get her autograph. At least now, she can take a stroll at her leisure while she slowly challenges the renegade's sanity.

But, there's one person who's already lost it, and she's freaking out while the other three pilots are being detained.

"No revenge, no humiliation," Xingjia vented, "Apparently the only thing I have is three incompetent traitors!"

"How?!" The leader protested, "We did everything you told us to do-"

"Shut it! As far as I'm concerned, you are all accomplices!" Xingjia flipped them off and stormed off in the direction the renegade was last seen.

"Take them away," the commanding officer ordered.

Tabane was eyeing that outburst with a ravenous smile, "Well, well...looks like I'll have an accomplice of my own..."


	3. Tricked Into Distress

_Part 3: Tricked Into Distress_

 **-CINEMARK HELENA 8 AND XD, LEWIS AND CLARK COUNTY; 12:33, FOUR DAYS TO ELECTION-**

Phantom Task was celebrating with a gore movie that scarred Chelsea, over excited Cecilia, annoyed Madoka, and satisfied Autumn. The reason was quite simple: every place they raided had some dark secret that tied everything to a long-running conspiracy that's only now seeing the searing light of day. Everything they've captured, from toys that weren't meant for playing, to people that clearly didn't want to be there, to documents that were carelessly placed, and everything in between, was sent to the renegade for exposure. Why didn't they do it themselves was beyond anyone's intellect.

"Oh...my childhood..." Chelsea muttered.

"Seriously?" Madoka asked, "Eight slashes and a multitude of predictable jump scares set you over the edge?"

"YOU! ARE! NOT! HUMAN!" Chelsea freaked.

"We've already established that," Autumn chimed on Madoka's head, "She's a fluffy kitty cat, Nyaadoka?!"

"GET OFFA ME!" Madoka shook her off.

No one noticed that Cecilia stayed back to talk to the locals. Most likely to distract herself from the fact that Madoka, with whom they have shared their trust, developed breast cancer faster than she could switch personalities on the fly. There was no way she could break the news due to a cascade of events that were sure to happen should anyone find out and tell. Though she couldn't help but feel like she should...

"Hey! Are you listening?!"

"Wha?!...uh..." Cecilia stammered.

"You seem off putting, lately," a teen said, "Are you sure you're not gonna wuss out?"

"Yeah, she doesn't know what she's doing..." another muttered.

Cecilia shook it off and rejoined the troupe, "Alright, knock it off. Let's cause trouble elsewhere."

"You ain't my mother!" Madoka shouted.

"Calm, M..." Chelsea rapidly shushed, "Calm now..."

"Never tell a woman to calm down!" Madoka growled, right before Autumn elbowed the back of her neck and knocked her drooling unconscious.

"Let's crash here for the night," Autumn said, "There's a couple of rallies happening this evening. Tensions increased since the renegade hit Florida, so this time we stay together."

"What?" Chelsea was stunned, "Why choose now to not split?"

Autumn scanned the square, "Umm...just a gut feeling..." and left them at that.

Leaving Chelsea confused, "What did she mean? I don't like that I don't know what she means."

"Probably her training," Cecilia said, "She's been trying out a new method of communication lately."

"Really? What's the foundation of contact?"

Cecilia cringed, "You have to go into IS sub space..."

"Eww..."

"Come on..." Cecilia heaved Madoka on her back, "Let's find a "no"tel somewhere...I really don't like where this is going..."

Chelsea heaved the sleeping demon's giant bag of snacks and followed Cecilia out to the van, completely unaware of a trio of men eyeing them from a nearby store.

"Yep. That's them."

"Can't believe they're getting away with messing with us. Should we follow them?"

"No. They'll be back tonight. There's going to be a protest clash, after all."

 **-SANDERS-HELENA'S BED AND BREAKFAST; 15:33-**

"MMMM-MM!" Madoka stretched herself out on the unusually comfortable bed, then started sinking, "Uh...A? C?! CC?! HELP?! Get the-" BOOM bed wrecked "-ugh, how did I..." She saw Cecilia leaning out the window, "The hell are you brooding out here for?"

"Oh, nothing..." Cecilia said, "Just thinking about Sokoto...been a while since I've heard from him..."

"You say that like he means something to you..." Madoka leaned against the wall.

"Well, he does have a way with hearts. Always demolishing the walls we've built around them."

"Hey...you haven't told anyone, have you?"

"Only because I know someone else will find out."

"Who gropes for that long?"

"They absolutely love the-"

"Fluffy!" Chelsea snuck a pillow onto Madoka's head.

"Friggin-" Madoka snatched it away and thwacked Chelsea repeatedly, "ASS-HAT PISS BALL NUTMEG!" After which Cecilia and Chelsea double-teamed her and buried her under the blankets.

Autumn watched from the bathroom door wondering how she was able to get those three all the way across the nation without permanently damaging their original personalities. She sighed as she reflected in her observations prior to stopping at the bed and breakfast. There were a lot of men in the shopping plaza, more than what she normally saw. There were more active women as well, taunting them at every street corner. It's a miracle that they were ignored by everyone else. The last thing she heard was,

"If you see anybody without breasts in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station, you get out and cause a crowd! And you push back on them! And you tell them they're not welcome! Anymore, anywhere!"

No doubt Sokoto has a huge impact on them, even though she was living the chaos up. She thought that Cecilia and Chelsea were actively trying to distance themselves from the chaos, because they were always on the women's side of the protests whenever they were infiltrating a headquarters. She was worried that they would fall victim to the gender war seeping into the world, but they haven't exhibited any signs of single-mindedness. She wondered why.

She sorta got her answer when a sudden fanfare blasted out of the TV:

"We have breaking news across half-hour. Confirmed sightings of the renegade and Sean Hannity, of all people, last seen in Tallahassee, Florida, causing massive property damage and civilian casualties. The renegade's IS has disappeared; he is still in the Tallahassee area, while Hannity has escaped-"

"Man, someone's gonna get the wrong idea..." Autumn muttered as she abandoned Cecilia and Chelsea to the severe consequences of forcing Madoka to a minute-long tickle torture.

In the lobby where a gathering was held, Autumn tried to mingle with the people who were more agitated than others, "Excuse me. Why's everyone up in a fritz?"

"Because that scumbag Alexia is gonna get elected to the senate! She wants to ease up with the harassment charges and sympathize with the men here!"

"Did she really say that?"

"I'm not taking any chances! I'm gonna beat some sense into those... things who wanna elect her!"

And that was the route of the gathering, and similar gatherings held across the county. Hundreds of people preparing to take the streets by force, attempting to shove their opinions down someone's throat and punish whoever would regurgitate those ideas. Well, that's how it was on the ground, but Autumn was distracting herself from the upcoming mission by conjuring up whatever flowery language she could use to twist the purpose of the protest.

 **-22:11-**

Which was exactly what happened later that night. As soon as the night lights lit up, people took to the streets to make their case known. To those watching the event through the filter of nightly news, it seemed like a normal demonstration. But underneath the surface, a storm was brewing. The increasing intensity of the demonstrations was just a byproduct for the real fight. Save for the random offensive joke every few minutes, Autumn had in mind to find the sneaky hideout in this area and force whoever ran it to surrender its secrets. The thing about the previous hideouts was that there was always a traitor in the midst willing to stir up even more trouble, if only to confuse the hell out of the projected electorate; here, no one doubted. If anything, Autumn anticipated a trap. She had to plan for, not only if they stayed together, but also if they somehow decided to split ways and ended up getting captured as a result. She spent the afternoon planning in secret, as well as testing her IS subspace connection. Once she confirmed her settings were optimal, she met with the crew one last time, right at the intersection where their group was marching.

"What exactly are we doing bunching our panties together?!" Cecilia shouted over the chants of the women.

"Taking the route they're going!" Autumn said, "We'll cross with four houses with a lot of men and no women! One person goes in! Five minutes, get out!"

"Ok, but then what's the deal with the men over?!" Madoka shouted.

"That's when you bait them! Lure them in and kill them!" Autumn said.

"Not really sure about that this time..." Chelsea muttered.

As the protests were underway, Autumn and the crew marched among the masses who were calling for the expansion of paid parental leave to exclude or penalize men. They stormed the streets, preventing anyone nearby from getting any sleep, especially when they came across another group protesting a different idea:

"Who's gonna raise our kids properly when us women have to work?!"

"You wanna give them MORE money?! They already make more than us!"

"You want to send our children to day care?! Those people are monsters!"

"They're better than those misogynistic meat heads we call husbands!"

"That's your cue, Chelsea!" Autumn shouted, "Go out!"

"Wha...ME?!" Chelsea seemed very unsure.

"Yes, you! Now, scram!" Autumn pushed her out and forced her to stumble into an open house party. "Goddamn me, I'm gonna have to bail her out...Cecilia!"

"Yeah?!" Cecilia shouted.

"We're gonna have to stay split after all!" Autumn advised, "Keep to the route no matter what! Stay together!"

"Stay to-HUH?!" Cecilia nearly lost her place when she was suddenly shoved aside to the other protest group. She frantically looked around for anyone with a familiar face, "Cod-chucking-OOF! Excuse me! Are you daft?!"

"No, but I'll be happy to shove my ass in your cooch."

"The hell are you-M?!"

"Yeah, A throw you off, too?"

"Unceremoniously-" Cecilia and Madoka were suddenly interrupted by a voice in their head.

"You must go."

"Ahh! What was that?!" Cecilia screamed.

"You're running out of time," the voice said, "Go now."

"Autumn?" Cecilia muttered before she was hit by an actual protester.

"You sure like to suck up to the guys," the protester sneered.

Madoka quickly snatched Cecilia off the scuffle, "She can't be reasoned with. Let's go." And they walked away into the chaos that easily drowned out the protester's rant.

"Thanks," Cecilia panted, "Hey, what's with that weird voice..."

"Yeah. Autumn told me about an ethereal connection via subspace..."

"Oh...yeah...that's a thing..." Cecilia mumbled as she refocused her mind on getting the night over with.

Inside the first house, Chelsea was all manners of nervous. She tiptoed slowly into the basement, where she knew something of worth would be very well hidden here. That's the problem for her scenario: stuff that's secure takes long to find, meaning more damage to her psyche should she be found. Just the thought of that is rapidly diminishing her confidence. She searched frantically for anything of worth until she heard footsteps coming down. She froze in terror and listened for their sound. They were sneakers, which freaked her out even more. When the sound was directly lined with her back, she deployed her saber and thrust it behind her.

"Ok, lady," it was Autumn, "You need Xanax." She was fast enough to catch the sword before it entered her barrier space.

"Oh my god..." Chelsea panted in relief, "What are you..."

"Let's go," Autumn dragged her out of the basement and into the front yard.

"Where're you going, hun?!"

And right into a front yard of men.

Autumn looked at Chelsea very annoyed, "You freaked out, didn't you?"

"The party's just getting started!" One of them started to approach Autumn, "Why not have some fun with us?!"

"Autumn?..." Chelsea saw several men approaching her, and Autumn had in mind what that meant. That yakuza group had contacts in America, and one of them found her here.

Autumn deployed her index finger and blasted a tiny wind bullet at a nearby protest group. One of the women screamed as she turned around and covered up her underwear.

"Heh, pansy-UGH!"

"No! Autu-ACK!"

Right before she saw Autumn and Chelsea get assaulted. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?!"

"Shit," a man cursed, "how'd they find us?!"

"Get'em outta here!" Another man yelled right before a woman jumped him.

Then, absolute chaos. The woman were trying to free Autumn and Chelsea from their captors, who were trying to ward them off.

"Why'd you leave the control collars in the van?!" A man screamed.

"Like you wouldn't notice a bulging duffel bag?!" The other snapped.

"Well, we just did," Autumn spooked the men with her sudden deployment. She blew the men to the other side of the county, then quickly retracted her IS.

The protesters came from behind and ransacked the van the men spoke of, and absolutely lost their minds.

One of the stragglers tapped Autumn's shoulder, "Hey, what's happening?"

"See that van?" Autumn quickly propped herself upright, "It's got a bunch of control collars that suck out the brain cells not in constant use, thereby slowly but surely turning you into a mindless puppet."

"What?!" The woman freaked out and turned to the group at the white van, "Check the van, everyone!"

"We did..." someone said, "She's telling the truth..." The two looked back and tried to find Autumn, who inexplicably disappeared from the scene.

She landed right by their protest group, where she saw Chelsea safely detailing the absolute horror of their encounter.

"Welp," Autumn muttered sarcastically, "that won't affect the election in any way."

 **-30 MINUTES LATER-**

Five blocks away, Cecilia and Madoka slowly trudged through the heart of the city. Police officers were lined up along the sidewalk, ready to shut down any fight that gets out of control. Not that it would matter because it would always result in the most chaotic shoutfests the city has ever seen.

"Stand with all! Stand with all!"

"Put the glass on men! Put the glass on men!"

"Incoming cross, 9 o'clock!" Madoka screamed.

"Alright, ladies," the group leader growled, "Time to take a piece of their minds away from them!"

"M, go!" Cecilia urged.

"Now?!" Madoka stammered.

"They're both here!" Cecilia pointed to the office plaza to their left, "You search in the back area! I'll look over there!"

"Uh...uhhh!" Madoka stammered and fled the group. She weaves her way through the tightly packed plaza and into the target area. "Ok, I'm here...now I'll just-"

"Be quick, M..."

"D'ahh!" Madoka smacked her head, "Autumn?!"

"People coming...hurry..."

"What..." Madoka looked behind her and saw the plaza being swarmed with bystanders and protesters, "Yeah, no shit they're coming..." Using her experience in past missions, she only checked specific cabinets for evidence of corruption. She didn't find much, just a couple pieces of paper that spoke of a meeting between an operative from the DNC, and one from the RNC. "That's all it says...fuck it, it'll do..." She quickly ran out of the office and into a brutal fight in the plaza.

"Yep...right when I get out..." Madoka shook her head and ran towards the rear entrance, katanas ready to slice anyone who would try to cop a feel on her. She ran at full speed, ignoring the few women trying to chase her down, flipped over, and sliced the doors down. She briefly used a door as a skateboard to skid across the street, all the while sinking her blades into several people.

"Oh, the humanity!" She joked, "How else must this crisis be addressed?!"

She immediately scurried off when she saw an army of angry protesters stormed the street.

Cecilia had a far different story. The moment she stepped into the target building, she felt a very uneasy vibe crawling all over her skin. She recognized this feeling as that of the renegade's, when he used his sensory abilities to track incoming enemies. The unusual sensation told her that there were people all around her. She had to move quickly.

Cecilia went right for the desk that looked the most professional. It was the only desk in the office that was cleaned out, which meant something had to have been misplaced. She dove into every drawer and scrambled for something worthwhile. She finally came across an unusually small folder. She was about to peek into it, but the door suddenly swung open. She had no choice but to take the folder and squeeze between some trees to hide from the pursuers.

"Come out, come out, wherever you are..." it was a man. He had a squad behind him...and flashlights.

"Shit!" Cecilia neglected the hiding and unleashed her IS, firing several shots at the people to clear a path outside. Just when she made it out, she suddenly felt a snag on her left ankle. "Fuck-OOF!" It was a Canceller. Her IS was forced into standby, and she skidded across the floor, smashed through a glass window, and rolled out onto the middle of the street. "Oh, my head..." she rubbed her head and looked around. Two groups of people charging for her, men and women, "SHITFUCK!" She got up and ran out, leaving the men to fend for themselves.

 **-BEST WESTERN PREMIER HELENA GREAT NORTHERN HOTEL; 23:32-**

Eventually, the team found their way to the lobby of a hotel, far away from the helter-skelter of the protests.

"Oh, that was insane!" Madoka said, "I cannot believe how quickly we were about to fall apart!"

"You don't say..." Chelsea waivered between shutting M up and running away.

"We all had a bunch of men home in on our location, and then-WHAM! POW! I used one of them as my own skateboard!" Madoka forced the image in Chelsea's brain.

Meanwhile, Cecilia was struggling with the Canceller, "RERRRGH-ugh...it's like these things suddenly grew a brain!"

"Yeah, this definitely ain't your standard issue Canceller..." Autumn mused, "Did you ask Madoka for help?"

"Yeah, she blasted the goddamn thing!" Cecilia whined, "Nothing!"

"Huh...and if they have tracking devices..."

"You know, you're taking this awfully well, like you expected this to happen!"

"Well, be prepared for anything. Remember?" Autumn winked.

And Cecilia suddenly remembered the training day, "Ugh...that voice in my head..."

"Yeah..." Autumn muttered, "I'll show you how later on..."

"Wait! Look at the TV!" Cecilia pointed to the sudden blaring from the screen atop the fireplace, the burning flame seemingly symbolic of the situation being displayed:

"Coming to you live from the intersection of 267 and 319, an explosive showdown has seemingly trapped the renegade in the ruined gas station, surprisingly not killing him, but everyone else around him! We also have visual of Tabane Shinonono closing in the station, as well as several authorities scrambling to detain them both! The renegade has separated from a Fox News crew earlier today, but they are under the influence-"

Autumn and Cecilia stared at the TV, shocked in awe.

"Did he just...toss us aside..." Cecilia seethed.

"No, no..." Autumn said, but in the back of her mind, she knew something happened. Something made him lose all connection with Silvia, and by extension the rest of Phantom Task. How else would they explain Tabane getting the upper hand in the fight in Florida?

But she had no time to think any longer, as over the freaky rant Madoka gave to Chelsea, she heard a buzzing noise from the Canceller. On instinct, she dove for the noise to try and stop whatever was coming.

She wasn't even close. A blaring high-pitched sound blasted out of the Canceller, disorienting everyone on the first floor. Most people fainted, but the four women were only pinned to the floor, barely able to steady themselves on their hands and knees. Autumn and Madoka were barely able to hold on to their sanity, but Chelsea was completely out, and Cecilia just laid on the floor unable to move. The screech lasted for a full minute before finally fizzling out.

Madoka wobbled around the room a bit, "Ohhhhh...what train whistle woke up..."

"It ain't a train whistle..." Autumn waivered back and forth on her knees, her head still rattling, "Oh, man, my head..."

Cecilia was completely blank. She didn't know what to say.

"Ugh...Chelsea..." Autumn slowly stood up, "Chel...Chels...huminahuminahumina..." she got on her feet, but she staggered left and right just to keep herself from falling. She staggered until she ran into something mildly fluffy to bury her head in and relax her headache. "Huh...Squall?..." she mumbled.

"No," a very gruff voice muttered, "just an acquaintance."

That was enough to shock her back into consciousness. The moment she reacted, she was grabbed by her neck and thrashed into a wall.

"Huh?" Madoka slurred, "Wuzappenin..." Shewagged around like a lost dog trying to find a trail to follow. She happened to stumble around a pair of pants. She took a long sniff, "Huh...you're not Epic Man-UGH!" She earned a kick to the face.

"I'll teach you to mess with my friends, you little bitch!" A man went down on her and dragged her outside.

"Huh? Autumn? Madoka?" Cecilia said in her monotone voice, "What's happening?"

"Nothing," a man said as she was hoisted up by her limbs, "Just taking you back to your true home."

"True?" Cecilia muttered before looking around and seeing her teammates being carried away by men, into a black van, "No, you're not...you're taking me back to that place..."

"Well, not that you're in a position to do anything," the man wickedly grinned, while binding and gagging her, "Ooh, what I wouldn't give for a pair like these..."

"Hey, get...off..." Cecilia was slowly succumbing to the sensations felt before. She was thrown into the van with the men climbing aboard. She couldn't do anything except watch Autumn and Madoka squirm their way out, only to be met with Cancellers of their own.

"Let go, pickle pricks!" Madoka shouted, "I'm gonna hogtie you like a ball of thorned yarn when I-" She was punched across the face.

"Well, ain't you got the wise mouth," a man angrily approached her.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Autumn struggled to free herself, "I thought we had a deal!"

The keywords. Something happened within Phantom Task's minds to make them all fuzzy, as if to transport them to a plane between realms. Madoka and Cecilia felt that tinge, but they couldn't figure out where it was coming from. Only the words from Autumn mattered, and it got them concerned to say the least, Cecilia because of her conflicting inner feelings clashing with her situation, and Madoka for what this could mean for Autumn. Madoka momentarily stopped struggling to see how the scene played out, while Cecilia became frantic and tried to escape.

"I said we had a deal!" Autumn shouted, "What the hell is with you?!" Just then, she received a slap from the leader of the group. She gnarled and prepared to headbutt whoever hit her, only to have her head caught by a familiar set of hands.

"That deal just expired..."

Autumn recognized that voice. "Ta...suko...?"

Tasuko, current leader of the Yamaguchi-gumi, "Long time no see."

"Well...extorting?"

"No," the man said, "expanding." He gave Autumn a brutal uppercut to her stomach.

Autumn coughed up blood and reeled on the ground. She curled into a ball trying to drive the pain away, when that man stepped on her and leaned in close to her ear, pinning his entire body weight on her delicate frame, "More than a decade ago, I made you an offer to join my gang..." The man grabbed her neck, "You should've taken it." He felt her up a little before hoisting her to the van, where Chelsea was struggling to get the men off her. "Look, Anna," he taunted her with Chelsea's distraught face, "You could've avoided all of this. Instead, you chose to stand against me."

"Why..." Autumn grunted, "You were going to come after them anywAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH!"

"That's my decision," the man growled after he nearly ripped one of Autumn's nipples off her. He tossed her in with the rest, "Where's the other one?"

"Just a little longer, boss," a man said, "She's still resisting us."

"Nothing we can't han-"

"HEY! SHE'S A CANCER BITCH!"

Suddenly, everyone stopped. No words, no movement, just two little words that caught everyone off guard.

"She's got goddamn cancer!" The man who groped Madoka screamed, "It's practically a pimple now!"

Madoka was shocked. Out of all the secrets she's held onto, this was the one that she didn't want to get out. "How did you..." Madoka looked at Cecilia, who shook her head. She then looked at Autumn, who gave her concerned eyes. She returned the favor with piercing angry eyes.

The man suddenly choked her, "Where are you getting at?"

"Let her go," Tasuko suddenly said.

"What?!" The man was shocked, "You can't be serious!"

"What need have we for someone who's already dead?"

"Why don't we just kill her right now?!" The man said.

To which Tasuko took a gun out and aimed it at him, "For you, I'll need payment."

The man was forced to relent, "Dammit!" He picked Madoka up and kicked her out, "Get the hell out of my sight."

Madoka knew she had to go, but she couldn't. She had so many questions to ask Autumn, questions about that voice in her head and the IS subspace communication method, which Madoka suspected was the real reason for the insane training. But she didn't think the others would figure that part out at all, as they were too terrified of being left behind again to properly see the grander plan Autumn had set in motion.

"We're letting you go free without a hitch," Tasuko said, "I suggest you go now."

Madoka saw the gun and just ran, leaving the other three in the hands of arguably the most dangerous man on earth.


	4. Cranky hATEr, nO POINT redONE

_Part 4: Cranky hATEr, nO POINT redONE_

 **-CHEVRON, WAKULLA COUNTY; 23:35, FOUR DAYS TO ELECTION-**

The gas station was an absolute fiery mess. The renegade sought to hide here, but he underestimated Tabane's tracking abilities, as well as the local populace's vigilance. Tabane followed him all the way out of Tallahassee, where she at last confronted him at the gas station.

Five minutes before some Spec Ops pilot blew it up in classic action film fashion.

Sokoto lifted himself out of a window opening in the rubble, using his shield as protection and a guide. He hoisted Tabane to safety before clawing himself into fresh air.

"Ugh, my everything hurts..." he groaned, "How many superhero comics did I rip off?..."

"Eight...I think..." Tabane muttered, shocked that he tried to take the rocket head on instead of leaving her to her own devices, "Why did you do that..."

"I dunno...Couldn't resist the calling of the explosions, I guess..." he lost it, "Heheheheh, we went booooooom..."

"The hell?...Yep, you're going back to the lab," Tabane recovered and hoisted him on her shoulder, already planning for the battle with the pilots.

"Oh, good! We can bring Dee-Dee to test some of that techno-pagan shit you keep hiding away!" Sokoto rambled and sang like a drunken bum.

"All the antics in the world don't compare to this," Tabane said as she moved a fallen support beam out of her way to meet with the four pilots who were out for both of their brains.

"Tabane Shinonono?" A pilot asked.

"Who wants to know?"

"The whole world. We've given you every opportunity to come out of hiding and share your knowledge with the world."

"Look, lady. I have enough fame in the world, and all that money you speak of can be melted and or recycled into something more useful. Ain't nothing you can offer me that I can't make by myself!"

"Then, you'll both be coming with us," the pilot commanded, "Bring them in!"

"Knowledge, my ass," Tabane smirked. When two pilots flew in, she materialized a pair of rocket launchers that fired right at their faces. The other two circled towards the back and fired at her back, but she easily leaped over the blasts. She flung herself right at one of the grounded pilots, delivering a triple-kick to the back of the neck taking out that pilot's wings. Two other pilots tried to engage her, but she was able to deactivate an IS, and plow the other into the ground.

Tabane did a triple flip before sticking a flashy pose. "Hah, child's play!" She taunting before realizing that the renegade literally slipped out of her grasp, "Buh! Where did he-"

"IN DEXTER'S LAAAAAAAAAAAAAB!" In all the thirty seconds of chaotic action, Sokoto was literally thrown up in the air. No one knew he was up there until he smashed his shield into a pilot's face. That broke his fall, but he still stumbled down, "Oof! That'll teach you to mess with mansplainers!" He sensed Tabane and a pilot gunning for him. He knew he couldn't dodge Tabane's strikes, so he flung his shield right when Tabane yanked him away.

That shield ran into two wings, disabling their pilots' flight systems and careening them towards Tabane. Tabane kicked them away, but she threw Sokoto behind her to take the brunt of their counterattacks. He recalled his shield in time to throw it at another pilot, who misfired her rocket right at Tabane. She had to let go of Sokoto to throw the rocket back at her, but the pilot whose IS Tabane deactivated was able to jump back into action.

From there, it was an absolute dogfight. Sokoto fled into the surrounding forest to throw the pilots off, though Tabane wasn't too far behind. They both had to maneuver around the trees, while fighting each other. Tabane knew he'd be a challenge, but she didn't know he'd be an outright nuisance. She did everything she could to trip him up, but he either dodged them outright, or purposefully slip up to position himself to counter an incoming pilot. This was the first time she's seen his movement style in person. Just looking at him drove her nuts for some reason, as if to point out the one itty-bitty, teeny-tiny, not noticeable, littler-than-little miniscule waste of a thing...that he's better than her at. She definitely didn't want to take that lightly. So, she maneuvered across the forest in an effort to tire them all out at once, pelting them all with the littlest of love taps to get the pilots aggravated. It worked too well. The pilots stopped caring about formation and went straight to guerilla tactics, which caused Sokoto to expend even more energy just to stay alive.

"WHERE ARE THEY?!" One of them shouted, "I'LL WRANGLE THEM IN AND NEVER LET THEM OUT!"

"Tisk, tisk, obsessions!" Tabane taunted.

"Let's just blast them!" Another pilot suggested, readying her gatling gun. And suddenly all four pilots were ready to pelt the forest.

Sokoto saw then rise above the trees and aim their guns at him. "Oh, does that mean I won't be sold anymore?"

Once the pilots fired, Sokoto tried to shield himself, but a giant metal carrot boat landed in front of him. "HOLY monkey..." He froze and looked up at the carrot boat slowly tilting over and enclosing him in a loud thud, and black space. All of a sudden, he was overcome with fear, "Uh...hello, pink?...It's black, but why's it feel pink?...Why's red mixing with pink?..."

Then he felt a combination of fur, pillows, and sweat.

"Now, it's just us..."

"COOTIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIES!" Sokoto bellowed right when the giant dome was collapsing under the pressure of the pilots' combined rush assault. "GET'EM OFFA ME!" He broke free of her bear hug, and would've landed his very first double kick on Tabane, but then the exhaustion set in. He missed Tabane entirely, and only managed to down a pilot. Tabane returned the favor by plowing his head into the ground, only to get hit by a pilot's legs. She was about to collide with another pilot's sword, but she mustered enough stamina at the last second to deactivate that IS before skidding on the ground, succumbing to her own exhaustion.

"Ugh...damned little..." and her own frustration, "ENOUGH OF THIS CRAP!" She teleported SEVEN rocket launchers to her side.

"Uh...UFR-077 to control!" A pilot radioed and emergency transmission, "She's gonna blow up the entire area!"

"Reach for the sky!" Tabane shouted as all the rockets went off at once, homing in on both remaining pilots. Several rockets exploded into each other, kicking up a lot of dust and blinding everyone on the field.

"Dammit, run!" The pilots fled the battle site to hoping to minimize the damage done to the surrounding area. They were able to blow back the rockets and explode them in midair, but they couldn't slip over that one rocket that caught their backs and shunted them to the ground.

"Phew...wow, that was unnecessarily taxing!" Tabane stood up and stretched her back, satisfied with the message she sent to the pilots, "but, at least that little headache will be able to-I lost him again, didn't I..." She did one swift twirl, "Yes, I did," and then sat down to inspect the spot where Sokoto's shield got stuck. She rubbed some dirt on her hand and sniffed it, "Anti-IS defensive shield, solid plasma...special order for high-security...I suspect a traitor in the midst."

Meanwhile, Sokoto was being carried away at a high enough speed to prevent Tabane from pursuing them. The soft bumps between each step were enough to slowly wake him up. His eyes dazed around a bit before he could get a read on the person's aura. Once the person set hin down on a patch of grass, he could open his eyes, "Nnn...Daryl?..."

The person stopped. She pulled down her mask and scratched her head, "Uh...yeah..."

Sokoto chuckled, "Oh, god...I'm in the shit..."

"What? No, no no no no no no no, it's nothing like that!" Daryl tried explaining herself, "I was drugged, see, Forte injected some weird thing in my..."

Sokoto fell back into unconsciousness, "Charlotte..."

"Char...who?" Daryl recognized that name.

"Claire...rescue..." And then Sokoto went to sleep.

There she was, all alone with the object of her dreams. She held her composure while he was awake, but now that no one, not even Sokoto, could do anything to impede her progress...

"Goddammit, what am I doing?..." She snapped herself out of it, forcing the reason for her saving him back into her mind. Tatenashi had sent her to make sure he gets to his goal, without Forte trying any revenge schemes on him. She knew the consequences of holding him off and delaying the promised time, and yet she couldn't resist the temptation. She slowly ran her fingers across his hair, his child-like face, and his unusually hard body. Each trace over his muscles sent raised her heartbeat rate, until she decided to check her phone.

"Yeah, I still have two more days," she muttered, then looked around for any peering eyes, "and no worried about blue hair..." Then, she took him into a nearby church to recuperate.

 **-EARLIER-**

Meanwhile, Sean and his crew were having problems of their own. In addition to the vague instructions Silvia left behind before disappearing, they had to abandon their old van and equipment just to temporarily throw their pursuers off their trail. They're stuck without a means to communicate with their home base. With no contact, no encrypted navigation, and no way of obtaining information without getting caught by someone, they were on their own, having to rely on each other just to survive their trip to the Keys. They were able to drive all the way to the Gainesville area without getting caught, but only because they had nothing on them worth tracking. The instructions Silvia left behind translated to outfitting whatever vehicle they chose to drive with state-of-the-art equipment that can transmit a live newscast without being interrupted whatsoever.

That mean shelling out big time. The crew drove around for hours trying to find a store that coud get them what they needed. Every store they went, however, rejected them on the very obvious basis of either being wanted, or being men.

 **-RECYCLING CENTER, ALACHUA COUNTY; 14:30, FOUR DAYS TO ELECTION-**

Finally, the last stop before they have to leave the metroplex had one more "store" they could try. And thankfully, it was balanced out in men and women workers. Everyone got out and stretched. Sean took a moment to survey the area around them.

"Man, this takes me back," Sean muttered, remembering his days as a building contractor, "Sometimes, I miss the good sweat of a hard day's work."

"Isn't this kinda the same thing?" One of his writers joked.

"Hell, no," Sean groaned as he walked in, bracing himself for the enhanced interrogation he was sure to received from the center's supervisors. It seemed like a normal center so far, though. Men and women working and helping each other, albeit with little verbal communication. Once, he stepped into the lobby, he looked through the two open doors on either side. Everything was still as he would expect, not a lot of men in the office.

"Ahem," the secretary interrupted his observation, "Can I help you?"

"Uh, yeah, can I talk to the general manager please?"

"What for?"

"I need to make a purchase."

"I'll let her know," the secretary handed him a clipboard, "Just fill that slip out and she'll be right with you."

"Ok, thanks," Sean grimaced. Her. She. Two words that spelled trouble. He filled out the form, gave it back to the secretary, and waited for the inevitable encounter. Five agonizing minutes went by. He thought about how to bail everyone out should they be found, but then he heard the sound of heels coming from a nearby hallway. He looked on until the woman finally revealed herself.

"Mr. Hannity?" she asked, in a polite tone.

"Yes, I am him."

"My name is Malory Williams. I am the general manager for this center." She extended her hand.

"Pleasure to meet you," Sean shook hands with her.

"If you could follow me to the office, please?" Malory walked towards the back.

Sean followed behind, taking in everything happening in the recycle center. This wasn't like anything else in the state. This was the one bright spot in the entire county that was trying to forced one side into complete submission. Everyone was cooperating.

"You seem to take a liking to this place," Malory noted.

"No," Sean said, "Just wondering how everyone can work together. This isn't like any other place I've been at."

"Well, with the rapidly advancing technology, people have been dumping more and more old electronics out of their abodes," Malory responded, "A gigantic daily workload we can barely keep up with? If people start fighting, we'd get nothing done, and it'll keep piling on and on. Everyone here realized that and just settled within the workflow."

"Huh...just like my building contractor days. Everyone was sweating together, building together...but now I can't even breathe without hearing someone lose their mind about politics."

"That's true. Lucky, we don't have any TVs in our lunchroom, I'll say. Ok, this way, and we'll get you set up."

"Right," Sean remained cautiously optimistic. He had suspicionsm seeing as how news of his trip with the renegade broke earlier this afternoon and word should have spread throughout Florida, given the speed and virality of stories like this. Either he was being led into a trap, or... He called one of his cameramen to make sure, "Hey, is everyone still outside?"

Answer, "Still waiting. This isn't gonna be long, is it?"

"It might. Keep that car running."

After a stair climb, he was inside her office. He remained standing while she typed away on her computer. "So, what do you need?"

"Ah, just some equipment," he chose his words carefully, "Planning a huge live video, and the phone I have doesn't-"

"No, seriously. What do you need?"

"Hm?" Sean looked around him. No one was near the ofice, or even remotely close. He turned back to Malory, "What do you mean?"

"Because you're in league with the renegade, right?"

Sean peeked at the windows again. No one was even taking notice of his face clearly looking down on them. Was she going to blackmail him? He didn't want to think of an answer. He was about to reach his phone, when-

"Relax," Malory eased his tensions, "I'm the only person that knows."

"Really?" Sean questioned her, "How does no one else in the center know?"

"Trust me, no one on the floor has cellphones."

"Ok...so, what's your deal?"

Malory turned around and stared at a photo on the wall, "My daughter was among the rescued. That day in Canada. The renegade brought to light one of the worst prostitution rings in the world."

Sean was taken back. He knew the renegade has some antics in Canada, but that rescue...this was something that directly impacted the entire continent. It wasn't just Canada at all. Sean momentarily thought thought the renegade was out to destroy the world before reeling his thoughts back into this moment. "So...you owe him, too?"

"Huh?" Malory was surprised, "Aren't you with him, though?"

"Not voluntarily. He threatened to blow up my family if I didn't cooperate."

"What about now, though? You split, right?"

"Yeah, but...*SIGH*...but then there were two rockets that were fixing to blow me and my friends up. He took the hit instead. Plus, I'm sure you saw me every night since then begging people to take a deep breath and look at the facts, if they even matter anymore."

"I see..." Malory seemed a little relieved, "So, you owe him, too?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"So, what do you need?" She went back to her computer.

"Honestly, a friggin' overhaul. I think the original news van has been sacked, and I gotta do a live show this Monday."

"Shouldn't be a problem," Malory finished sending the email, "unless the renegade decides to escape the panhandle."

"Doubt it..." Sean muttered.

Over an hour later, his crew was still waiting outside. They wondered whether or not Sean has fallen victim to the claws of womanhood. But when he emerged from the front door lobby, he didn't look any different than when he walked in.

A cameraman stood up and asked, "So...how'd it go?"

Sean shrugged, "It went. We're gonna get another van."

The crew cheered before a writer said, "A van full of junk? How do we know this is even going to function properly?"

"About that..." Sean looked back and shrugged, "The manager knows we're in on this quest, so she's offered Election Eve and Day off to anyone willing to put it together for us."

"HAH?" The crew screamed in disbelief.

 **-18:44-**

After four hours of relic hunting, circuit testing, join-the-party-begging, and vehicle hunting, they finally got a makeshift communication van up and running.

"Oh my god..." a writer collapsed on the ground, "So many piles of junk...and not even a TV..."

"Heheheh..." Sean laughed, "That's what happens when you stick your eyes on a monitor for 8 hours straight..."

"Oh, can it, will you?..." the writer was barely keeping himself alive with all the searching and lifting they did.

"Testing for something...connect that over here..." the rest of the crew were testing the signal of the elctronics to see if it would hold up against heavy interference.

"Say, how much is all this gonna run me?" Sean asked Malory.

"Oh, all this?" Malory quipped, "We would barely make a couple grand on it, at best."

"Sounds like a steal," Sean said.

"No, this is on the house. Lord knows what kind of damage the renegade will cause this thing."

Sean was about to give a her funny look, when all of a sudden, the van roared its engines and squeaked a couple beeps. All of the workers cheered, and the crew gave a hearty shout.

"HAHAHAAAAA, IT'S ALIIIIIIVE!" A crew person exclaimed.

"Well, I guess that's my time to go," Sean shook her hand one more time, "It's been a pleasure doing business with you."

"Likewise with you," Malory returned the favor, "I hope you'll be able to find whatever it is you're looking for."

"Come on, Sean!" the writer took the wheel and slowly guided the van out, "We're losing daylight!"

"Alright, alright! I'm coming!" Sean literally chased after the van, and was only able to get on through rear door when his crewmates grabbed his hands and hauled him on.

"And this is where I say, you need to ease up!" A crewman joked.

"Oh, shut up!" Sean panted as he looked back at the recycling center, its people, and its manager, all waving back as they slowly disappeared out of his sight. He wondered if there was anything he could do to return the massive favor, aside from risking unwanted attention for them. But that was a call to make another day, as they had another task to accomplish.

 **-PADDOCK MALL, MARION COUNTY; 20:15-**

Like finding a signal amplifier and stabilizer. In a shopping mall.

"We're closed!" A female cashier shouted.

"But the sign said 9-"

"CLOSED!" The cashier had none of it and slammed the cameraman out. Then, she had a conversation of...sorts, "Those Fox News assholes are here."

"What the-those fucking twats?!"

"She's a fan," Sean quipped.

"How's the job market since the Democrats took over?!" The cameraman engaged in a political shout fight with the shoppers while Sean just walked off to find a quiet place.

The writer, however, had other concerns that were in the range of "FML" and "FEEL". He had no luck in keeping his mind together, and he felt like he needed a week to drink. He was about to leave everyone behind when a middle-aged woman sat in front of him.

"Mind if I sit here?"

"Uh...no, no..."

The woman caught onto his distress, "You seem like you're in a rough spot."

"Oh! Oh, no no, just...thinking..."

"About the whole renegade business?"

"Well..." the writer bent the truth to avoid suspicion, "I gotta write a script because I received a tip-off to his next location. And I have to be right at the location."

"Oh, that is scary..."

"You're not freaked out because I'm a man?"

"No. I was a witness to the pre-Infinite-Stratos era. Actually, I contributed to the first generation of IS units. And look what happened today."

"No kidding. It's only been fifteen years!"

"I know! And already they call me old!"

"How old are you?"

"48."

"Uh...well..."

"You're younger than me. Don't you dare."

And they continued their conversation for five minutes before she decided to lend a hand. At the very shop where the cameraman was still arguing with the shop attendants.

"Excuse me?" The woman tried to speak.

"They can't hear you," the writer commented.

"Just testing out the volumes," the woman said before she got right in their faces and- "HEEEEEEEEEEY!"

Everyone froze.

"There!" The woman said, "I need a signal amp-stable combo."

"Um...ok!" The shop attendant happily obliged. Not only that, they gave her a discount on the highest quality combination product they had.

Outside the shop, the writer told the crew what had transpired.

"She just told you like that?!" Sean didn't believe him, "She told you she worked on the first generation?!"

"Yeah! Discoveries, models made, and everything!" The writer exclaimed.

"Why you, though?" The cameraman questioned, "They wouldn't give two rat's asses about me!"

"Because I got my weekend vacation upended by the world's most powerful dumbass, probably..." the writer made it clear he was irritated, and everyone backed off.

Except the woman, who was able to secure the component they needed, "Here you are. This should help you in your top story."

"Whoa...the latest model?!" The cameraman was in shock, "Uh...I don't know what to say..."

"It's nothing," she responded, "Now Fox doesn't have to worry about another shake up for a little while longer."

"That probably won't matter after my next monologue," Sean joked. Everyone chuckled before he saw the cashier storm towards they group, "Uh, did you forget something?"

The group turned eyes to the cashier before she could take back the item they got.

"Yes, I did," she growled, "Give it back."

The woman was confused, "You want me to give you the thing I bought one mi-"

"You did not buy it! They stole it!" The cashier snapped, "I want it back!"

"On what grounds?" The woman stood in her way.

"Do you have any idea who these people are?!"

"Yeah. Men. Woman. They're Republicans. I'm a Democrat. So?"

The cashier froze. Clearly, she hadn't been open to the idea of associating with anyone who might make her fuss about a disagreement. But the one thing that sent her over the edge...

...were the woman's next words, "Hold on. Democrats are supposed to be more open and more accepting. You're telling me that you're going to...discriminate? Against different views?"

"FINE! FINE!" The cashier had it, "Just get that thing out of my sight!"

"Right," The woman waved goodbye and left. The crew just walked out of the mall.

"What the hell just happened?..." the cameraman asked still stunned about the last five minutes.

"I think she showed us how to make a mind grenade," Sean whispered.

"I seriously need some beer..." the writer mumbled.

"No, you need some sleep..." a crewman corrected.

 **-HILLTOP MOTEL; 23:44-**

And that's exactly what they got. A place to rest their weary minds and cleanse the dirt off their bodies. It didn't take long for everyone to fall asleep. Except Sean, who stayed up witnessing the aftermath of battle of the century:

"Casualties were two Special Ops pilots and several civilians caught in the crossfire. The renegade was able to escape once again, but after Tabane Shinonono somehow fired several rockets at the pursuit team-"

"The creator?!" Sean exclaimed, "What the hell was she doing there?!" He racked every possible reason in his head to figure out why Tabane chose now to come out of hiding. The renegade had to have stolen something to warrant her- "Wait a minute..." then he remembered a couple of reports he read online: one about the fabrication of the White Knight Missile Crisis, and the other about the renegade's blood composition. Suddenly, those two started to piece together everything he witnessed about the renegade.

"Ugh, the creator versus the destroyer...I'm definitely an accomplice..."

The renegade was trying to destroy the IS. The machine, the people, and the twisted system it helped create. Everything that's happened leads to that conclusion. The raids, the random battles, the way that Phantom Task moved about...they wanted to create an escape from the dark side of the IS.

At the same time the revelation came to him, the words from a mental script began to form into a message of mercy and reformation. He has seen both the bad and the good the IS did, but the renegade seemed to be focused only on the bad. Whatever put him on the path of destruction, this was Sean's chance to get him off. He has a commercial-free, special edition in two days, after all.

"Oh, I definitely need help..." he muttered as he turned off all the lights and went to say a prayer.

Not noticing his phone and charger giving off yellow holographic sparks.


	5. See The Assault Through

_Part 5: See The Assault Through_

 **-REFLECTION POOL-**

Sokoto had been through some pretty rough times before, and he'd always shake it off with a joke and a crackle. But this was a rare moment of uncertainty for him, in that he wasn't sure he could keep up the act. He knew...sooner or later, he'll have to face the music. He really screwed up. He got everyone separated, probably captured. All because of that one moment he decided to haul ass after the three people that never meant a damn thing. What was he thinking? More than that. though, where is he thinking?

Sokoto rolled over and propped himself on his knees, "Where am...hey, I know this place..." The same place where he first synced up with Silvia. But why was he thrust into the realm this time? He didn't have an answer, so he washed his face to shock his system into clarity. WHen he was done, he heard footsteps sloshing through the water creeping closer to him, but he couldn't sense its aura for some reason. He dried his face and looked up.

"Hey, blubberball..." it was Autumn.

"Huh?...What're you doing here?" he doused his face with more water.

"While you were gone, I've been working on this little side-project," Autumn explained, "Squall pulled me in before she died, and I've been working on how to do the same."

"Squall...she showed you how?"

"Sort of," Autumn turned around and motioned someone else to come over, "It's how I've been able to pull them in."

Cecilia and Chelsea appeared from behind, with concerned looks all over their faces.

"Hey...it's you two!" Sokoto exclaimed.

"Yeah," Cecilia said, "Long time no chat..."

"Real long..." Sokoto commented, "So, anyone know where this place is?"

"IS Subspace," Autumn said, "This place acts as a hub world for those in the heat of the moment to console their hearts and fortify themselves before being thrust back into the real world. In a sense, we've uploaded our consciousnesses into this place to fix us here."

"Really? And what happens to the us...es...in the now?"

"That's the problem," Cecilia interrupted, "We know we're here now, but we don't know what's going to happen to our bodies."

"Bodies?" Sokoto heard that phrase before. One of those off-putting sentences back in Canada, "Oh, god...you don't mean..."

"It happened," Chelsea pointed to her neck, "They strapped these control collars on us right after we were pulled into a white van. We have no idea where we're heading. Our ISs have been disabled. We're completely sealed off from the outside world."

"Control collars?" Sokoto questioned, "Like...you don't mean..."

"Yes, those collars," Cecilia said, "They house nanomachines that not only restrain our ISs, but also destroy the brain cells that are not in constant use. As long as those collars are on us, we can't go back."

Sokoto really felt down now. This definitely could've been prevented had he just stayed with them, "Shit, man...Guess I shouldn't have ran off like that..."

"And what does that have anything to do with this?" Cecilia asked.

"Everything...I...I can't contact Silvia. I lost you all. I'm pretty sure lost those news guys, too."

Autumn knelt down beside him, "Listen. You still have time to turn this around. It's just not gonna be right now."

"What do you mean?" Sokoto wondered.

"I suspect we have a double-agent working alongside us. That person will be able to provide support wherever we may need it. And trust me, we're going to need it now."

"How come?"

"For one thing, I can't contact Madoka anywhere," Cecilia butt in, "She may have closed off her heart yet again, preventing us from bringing her in."

"Why?"

"It's..." Cecilia fought the urge to spill the beans to Sokoto, not wanting to put any more pressure on him, so she lied and gave him another thought to mull over on, "We got onto her for killing her parents."

"Cece-" Chelsea attempted to protest, but Cecilia glared at her, demanding she keep silent.

"Soki," Autumn said, "You and Maokda are all we've got now. You have to try and reach out to her. You need to let her know that it's not as bad as everyone says it is. We'll be in touch until you can get us out."

"But how? I don't even know where I am..." Sokoto said, right when everything started to fade around him, "Hey! What's happening?!"

"You're being called back to the real world," Autumn stood up and walked away, "You still have a job to do."

"What if I get stuck?!" Sokoto shouted over the widening black gap, "What if I can't go on?!"

"You'll find a way...you always do..." was the last thing he heard before everything went dark. he was confused on his next objective, but at least he knows he can't stop moving.

"Goddammit...now what..." he muttered, "Gotta get someone who can decipher all...this...blah..." he was suddenly overcome with exhaustion and intense heat. He fainted before he could move any further.

 **-UNDISCLOSED HIDEOUT, WAKULA COUNTY; 09:57, THREE DAYS TO ELECTION-**

"Ugh...what happened?..." Sokoto's head was still throbbing, "Feels like I put acid on my b-" Suddenly, he felt a body on his back. "Wh...what...part of the body...am I contacing right now?..." All he had to do was move his shoulders to get his answer. He desperately wanted to freak out, but whoever was on him was still asleep. He tried to slowly wiggle his way out, and upon doing so realized exactly who his captor was. "Good go-DARYL?! WHAT THE WHAT?!" He kicked her away and scratched all the sweat off him, "GIIOOOOD-cooties! Cootie! Cooties everywhere! Cooties! Cooties, damn you! I don't care!"

Daryl landed on the bed and woke up, "Whoa, who the-uh..." She saw Sokoto continuously rolled on the floor due to an imaginary diesease and couldn't help but laugh.

Sokoto heard that, "Oh, whaddaya want now?!"

"Nothing!" Daryl chuckled, "Just...why are you so freaked about a nonexistent virus?!"

"You don't know that! I came across dirty men and dirty women...doing...dirty...thiiii..." Sokoto suddenly realized where he was, who he was with, and what she may have been doing to him, "Uh...I'mma go now..."

"No, you won't," Daryl clicked a button to seal off the exit before Sokoto could leave.

"D'oh!" He ran smack into the door, then stumbled back into Daryl's clutches, "Ok, we're going there, aren't we..."

"What are you talking about?" Daryl's aura suddenly shifted from light pink to purpley pink, "We went there five times. I feel like going there again."

He felt a tongue and a smooch all over his neck, "COOTIE LUST PAGAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-"

 **-BROADWATER HOT SPRINGS FITNESS, LEWIS AND CLARK COUNTY; 10:24-**

"Sokoto!" Madoka gasped. She looked around her surroundings, but found nothing unusual, "Huh...could've sworn I heard..." She shook her head and denied it, then sunk her head below the hot water.

She spent the last few hours deal with insecurities she never had before. From her personality 180, to the fact that someone could tell she has breast cancer just by feeling her up, to this newfound feeeling of loneliness, she's managed her internal struggle well by hiding from large crowds of people. But everything's happened so fast, that nothing is familiar to her anymore. She knew what Sokoto, Autumn, everyone meant when they said family, but she felt like they skipped several steps. Even now, she couldn't trust Autumn or Sokoto to be her stand-in parents, given what happened last time she had real parents (and the fact that Sokoto is two-thirds her height!).

Ironically, it was in a japanese hot spring similar to this one that her rage began to surface. She slowly raised her head to embrace the mist rising out the the clear blue water to meet the green scenery. She envisioned the same pool full of red, the day sky blacked out by the moon, and her own father drowned by the water in his lungs. Her mother was right next to him, screaming for everything to be undone. She also screamed at a very young and distraught Madoka for basically being a human deformity. And that was the last straw for them both. Her mother tried to drown Madoka, while Madoka herself was mentally going through all the times her parents berated her for not getting everything right the first time every time like Chifuyu, or being a saint like Ichika, or just not having the level of common sense that they felt like she was required to have. She saw it all. Her younger self digging into her mother's forearms, then pitching a hot towel at her writhing mother's face, then going into those terrified eyes. The mind was a terrible thing to her. She remembered wandering all over Japan, surviving only by picking off what people wouldn't keep. Then one day, she came across a live city-wide broadcast of the First Mondo Grosso, the awards ceremony. Really bad timing, as she never got over that smug face. She walked away in pure rage, venting her angry in the nearby trees for a week until Squall found her and brought her into Phantom Task.

She was angry back then, but now it's just mellowed out angst. She imagined what life would be like had she just not kept silent about her issues. Probably would'be been beaten up more than she beat up those trees, but someone would've noticed. Maybe she'd have lost her mind and fled anyway, except she'd be able to make her own house in the countryside. Sure, it's relaxing, a mental sanctuary, and no one would be able to find her. But compare that to now, what good would that do? It's just running away again. She's been roped into this insane speedrun for...a reason.

"Goddamn me..." she muttered, "What am I doing with my self..." Here she was mulling about parents and cancer, when she took it as a joke just a few days ago. Her mind really was unstable if she was that susceptible to mood swings. Deep down, she wanted to just focus on finding a reason for her being here, but with all the ditractions tampering with her mind, and her progress, the best she could hope for is another distraction to get her back on the right track.

"Where do you think you're grabbing, pervert?!" And lo and behold, someone interrupted her serenity time. Madoka turned around and saw flurry of women surrounding someone.

"Double goddamn me..." she groaned and slowly ascended out of the pool.

"I was on the other side of the fence!" a man protested.

"Don't give me that crap!" the lady snapped back, "I'll have you arrested for this!"

"For groping?! I wasn't anywhere near you!"

"I have footage of you, you can't deny!"

"The phone was never on!"

"Ok, ok, where's the footage?" Madoka suddenly bombarded the lively conversation.

"Thank god you're here!" A woman yanked her over to her side, "This man tried to rape my daughter in front of my eyes!"

"I thought it was grope-hey!" Madoka was shoved away.

"Admit it, you sicko! You tried to put your hands on her!"

"No I didn't! You're lying!"

"Ok, tone it down," Madoka tried to silence them, but the arguing only got louder. Luckily, it was quickly brought to a halt when Madoka was shoved right into the man's arms. They both looked into each other's eyes for a long while, but that look gave her all the information she needed. She recovered and slowly dropped her arms. "You got the footage, right?"

"Uh...yeah?" One of the women seemed nervous.

"Let me see it," Madoka demanded.

"Wha...you're seriously gonna side with this lecher?!"

"Lady, look above you!" Madoka shouted. The woman's eyes worked her way up to a small black dome which sounded a massive alarm in everyone else's head. Madoka knew that look in their eyes and continued, "If he really did grope you, we can use that as evidence against him. Just show me the footage and I'll share it."

"We don't need to show you anything!" A woman protested, "Just hurry up and put this leech down!"

"Triple goddamn me..." Madoka finally had enough. He contacted the man's torso, grabbed his hand and forced them on her butt. Then she wrapped her only towel around him. Everyone was shocked silent. The women were horrified at the mere sight of it. THe man was stupefied. Madoka just stared into his eyes, "You didn't do it, did you?" The man slowly shook his head. Madoka then turned her attention to the rest of the crowd, "Did I re-enact it just fine? He groped someone else. Happy?" The women had their bluff called. They had no choice but to admit defeat. Madoka suddenly yanked the man forward, "Your bedroom. Now," and pulled him away from the spring and into his car.

 **-12:02-**

Luckily, his house was far enough for the women to not follow, so she made temporary shelter there. Unluckily, neither of them bothered to hold their inhibitions in check and spent an hour getting to know each other. By the end of it, Madoka was stuck on his bed, and the man was giving himself a double shower.

"Oh...man, I needed that..." Madoka was gasping for air, whie the man was drying himself off.

"Ok...what the hell just happened?" he said, "One minute, you're trying to roll me away, and the next...well..."

"Yeah, I tend to do that a lot," Madoka said, "I just lose my mind when people take advantage of other people like that..."

"So...you screw other people when you need to vent?"

"Pretty much," Madoka stretched her body on the bed.

"So, what got you all the way over here? Runaway? Relationship issues?"

"Just a wanderer," Madoka said, "Tough living on my own...in one spot. Thought it'd be easier to keep moving."

"No parents or anything?"

"God, no! The operated on the "get everything done right the first time, everytime" mentality. I absolutely hated it. My parents bode me good riddance, and I flicked them off."

"Really?"

"Yeah, I think I'll crash here for a little while, thanks."

"You sure you don't want to stay for a while longer? I mean, it gets cold this time of year."

"I can't. I have a...well..."

 **-16:42-**

Madoka emerged from his house like she just came from the best fight of her life. Not only did she finally get all of her frustration out, but she also left with his blessing: a backpack full of clothes, and his leftover motorcycle. She felt ready to take on whatever lies ahead of her on her path to self-recovery. Thanks to the man's presence and eagermess to get the truth out, she can deal with her inner conflict a little better. She just has to plan for the inevitable moment where she crosses paths with her former siblings, which will no doubt cause another mood swing to disrupt her thinking again. But if that ever happens, she can bring them down with her greatest, and probably her one effective, weapon against them: she heard her parents' last words before she slaughtered them. If they rattled her, they'll certainly rattle Ichika. Chifuyu, one the other hand...those words would only offer a split-second opening. Madoka would have to use the "unnecessary conversation during a decisive battle" cliche to wear them out if she was ever to stand a chance against them. She nodded in satisfaction as she drove out onto the highway, but she couldn't help but wonder what Chifuyu was doing now that she refused to leave the country.

 **-NEW COVENANT UNITED METHODIST CHURCH, SUMTER COUNTY; 16:45-**

Chifuyu was also relaxing, in her own way. During the Battle of Tallahasse, she noticed that the renegade was defending a certain news van, when he could've easily let it be gone in a fiery explosion. That told her that he has use for whoever was driving that van, so instead of following the renegade, she tracked that van from far. As it turned out, the renegade has been following numerous leads that suggested that the world has been sabotaged long before the renegade came into play.

The discovery of a hidden amendment to the Treaty was one thing, but a systematic exposure of the possibly most well-kept secret of all time? No one was daring enough to just go along with the renegade's plan, coerced or not. She kept tabs on the crew until the made it to a church, where a special gathering was just about to begin. She made sure to disguise her most noticeable features before going in the crowd. She noticed some of the crew near the main doors and hid behind the columns, keeping herself silent as she listened in on their conversation:

"Man, I have no idea what to write..."

"Wait, we don't need an entire script. Just some notes and key pointers. We're gonna ad-lib this."

"Ad-lib the monologue?!"

"We've done this before. Just keep him on track, and we'll be able to get the message out no problem."

Chifuyu took note of that. She sneaked her way out of the mingling and searched for the van, where she knew that her target was resting in because of his profile being easily recognizable. She found it parked nearest to the highway, and she found Sean stretching to relieve the tension built from this crazy experience.

"Oh, god...Hoo, boy!" Sean finished stretching and opened the van, "Man, I needed that...Ok, how far am I?" His map showed him 8 hours away from the target destination, "Wow...maybe I should get some interviews in...liiiiike, now..." He felt someone approaching him from behind and tried to confront that person, "I'm sorry, I don't carry any-WHOA!" He narrowly dodged a sword strike, a kick, a jumping sword strike, and a sword thrust before being pinned against another car. He felt the blade against his neck, but he didn't feel any more forceful movement. The grip on the blade loosened. "What are you after?" He gasped.

"Relax. I just wanna talk."

"That voice..." Sean saw the person remove her disguise and let her hair loose, "What are you doing all the way out here?"

"You know me?" Chifuyu said.

"The whole world knows, fights and speeches and et cetera. I don't know what you're doing all the way out here! The renegade's still in the panhandle!"

"I know. But you're my priority right now."

Sean got nervous, "Uh...ok. Let's talk..."

 **-17:03-**

While the rest of the crew were out asking people about the renegade and the upcoming election, Sean and Chifuyu were discussing one major headache that tied them together.

"Not really a headache, just a little prick in the neck," Chifuyu muttered.

"Everyone's got an MO, and he's no exception," Sean commented while prepping the van for another long tavel, "There's gotta be a good reason for why he's hellbent on destroying the IS."

"Wouldn't the numerous men and women being chained up for the pettiest reasons count?"

"No, then'd he just be a vigilante hack. Gotta be deeper than that..."

Chifuyu decoded those words as seeing some good in the renegade's rampage. She had to get more out of him, but she spotted a peculiar picture popping from his phone: Madoka, with the maniac and the moth, holding a dead woman's hands...Squall's hands! "What the hell..." she exhaled.

"Huh?" Sean had never seen the Brunhilde lose her composure before.

"Your phone...that...thing!..."

"Oh, found that thing this afternoon. The renegade said something to me about redeeming them. Squall was able to apologize to those two, and pass the baton to him...right before she died."

Chifuyu was stunned. She never wrested a word from Madoka; she only heard about her possible involvement from Laura. She couldn't figure out how a little yellow prick could not only melt Squall's ship-sinking iceberg of a heart, but launch two lifesaving raids as mere afterthoughts.

"Though the more I think about it," Sean was finishing up preparations for a long interview-edit gauntlet, "maybe...really BIG maybe... he didn't have a family, but he found one and realized there are people who are way less fortunate than him who are being exploited for that. IF that's true, then I gotta set him straight. But...again, that's a pretty big stretch." Sean then tested the connection, "Plug that here..." *FZZTTT* The van started humming, "Haha! It's on!" He hadn't heard anything from Chifuyu and decided to include her in this insane narrative, "You know, if you still wanna find out his MO, we're meeting him near the No Name Key. Supposed to be this nasty prostitution factory, or so he says..."

"Did he say what was in it?..." Chifuyu almost regretted asking.

Sean grimaced before saying, "The missing pilot. Charlotte Dunois. Can't confirm; he's only heard."

Chifuyu was now at wit's end. Not even she knew what had happened after Charlotte's sentence hearing. She could only think of one way that her location would be revealed: either the renegade went straight to the source, or he's of the source. She thought the renegade had an ulterior motive, and that "destroying the IS" crap was just crap. "God...yeah, I'll tag along. I'd like to see this so-called MO for myself."

Right when she said those words...

"She's gonna WHAT?!" The crew just finished their round of questions, when they overheard the Brunhilde not using her swords.

"Oh, you're all done?" Sean asked.

"Yeah, but...but...the...the Brunhilde!" The writer stammered.

"Yeah, I'm gonna be a contributor for tomorrow only," Chifuyu mindlessly blurted out an excuse to latch her onto the trip.

The cameraman just stared. The writer gave up and slumped in the van's back seat. And everyone else just prepped their equipment and climbed in the van.

"So, what do we do now?" Chifuyu asked while driving the van onto the main road.

"Ok, we have until tomorrow 9pm EDT to film, interview, edit, set up, write, plan, and rehearse," Sean said as he took the passenger seat, "We're gonna send a message to the renegade that the world isn't as bad as he thinks it is, and call out the usual deep state for actually creating something that didn't need to exist. If this doesn't get through to their heads, nothing will. Everyone clear on the objective?"

Everyone, including Chifuyu, let out a half-hearted grunt.

"Well, too bad," Sean flatly stated.

"By the way," Chifuyu mused, "Why did he choose you to break the news?"

"I'm the first guy he saw. He took what he got, instead of waiting another month."

"But why? Does he know you're a hyper GOP fanboy loyalist hypocrite?"

Sean let out a half-hearted grunt.

 **-UNDISCLOSED HIDEOUT, WAKULA COUNTY; 17:10-**

"So, see if I have it right," Daryl confirmed Sokoto's story, after "nourishing" him for EIGHT HOURS! "Phantom Task is lost to a prostitution ring, and the key to saving them is in the No Name Key?"

"Yep," Sokoto prepped himself for a very long run, "and I gotta be ready for when I expose this nasty little shit snail to the rest of the world."

"You sure you want that?" Daryl questioned Sokoto's life-carving choice, "I mean, we have everything we need right now. We don't need anyone else-"

"Uh, spend the rest of my life in a dung hole-a literal luxury dung hole? No," Sokoto made his intentions clear, "And I can tell that you don't either."

"What! Pbbttt, you don't know-"

"Lady, I have aura sense. I do know."

Daryl grimaced. Tatenashi had warned her about that ability, and how he got it. Daryl didn't want to believe that he actually had it, but seeing as how he was able to navigate himself out of public aggravation after the chaos of Tallahassee, and how he dug up her inner feelings in literally one swoop, she had many questions and many more mixed feelings-

"Uh, your aura's coming off like Taco Bell's vomit special..." Sokoto cringed.

"Exactly how many women did you sleep with..." Daryl muttered in a monotone voice.

Sokoto immediately recognized this aura from a comic he happened upon en route to North Carolina: yandere. Normally a dangerous kind, but Sokoto quickly figured out a way to manipulate it for his own objectives. He just answered, "A lot, including everyone in Phantom Task."

"Is that so?" Daryl packed her bags and opened the door, "Well, if anyone were to approach you with ill intentions, you will need a very capable bodyguard."

"Oh?" Sokoto did not expect that reaction, "I suppose you're going to keep all the bad guys away from me? Even though I can one-two punch everything already?"

"Well, you never know," Daryl took his hand and walked him outside, "Those people are far more manipulative than you know."

"Well...yeah, you have a point..." Sokoto sighed and followed her onto the road.

"Just stick with me. I know this state like the back of my hand," Daryl smiled.

Sokoto nodded, but he knew she knew, and she knew that he knew that she knew that he knows that she's hiding something. Daryl's going to try everything in her power to sway him away from the main goal, no matter how long it takes. Luckily, Sokoto's life was still in the trash can waiting to be picked up, so he'll have no problem sacrificing himself to give her the worst headache she would've ever faced. Although he could welcome her into Phantom Task...

'Nah,' he thought, 'Whatever gets me my family back takes top priority.'

 _The pieces are finally falling into place. Finally, the moment of truth is nigh. In two days, everything will be shown to the world. With the fate of Phantom Task in the hands of the one who first set off the chain reaction, Sokoto now finds himself at odds with a relic of the old Phantom Task. Meanwhile, the new Phantom Task has found themselves a powerful safe haven until they are able to reconnect with the real world. However, Madoka has gone off on her own path of recovery, completely diverging from the original mission, while her older counterpart has joined the mission, allying with one of the country's most prominent voices in politics, on her own path of discovery._

 _All of these threads, only the renegade can weave together. He started this mess, and only he can decide where it goes. The Taskforce will be taking a backseat to the greatest confrontational, and political, show in recent history. Three years after the Alaska Treaty had been ratified, and the preceding US election resulted in a woman being president, legislation was passed to change the day from Tuesday to Wednesday to fit the personal needs of women. Maybe a bad decision given how quickly bombshell news reports can be processed, which will be corrected soon enough._

 _Mark your calendars. The greatest show on earth will begin, in the Season Two Finale of Infinite Stratos...Virus._


End file.
